…Asks indigenes to cooperate with contractors
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has flagged off the reconstruction of the 67-kilometer Umuahia-Uzuakoli-Akara-Ohafia road which has been in bad shape for more than a decade.
While flagging off the road construction, Otti said that his administration was in a hurry to deliver and recover lost ground.
He noted that the government could not afford to waste time as that informed the choice of three contractors, Craneburg, Ferotex and CCECC to undertake the job simultaneously.
The Abia governor disclosed that he wanted the project to be completed as quickly as possible and would be delivered to specification within record time.
Otti said it was his desire that Abia people move on motorable roads, and to be able to easily evacuate their farm produce.
“We want our people to move on roads that are motorable. We want people who are doing business in all the nooks and crannies of Abia to be able to evacuate their products and come to the townships to sell them.
“We want all our leaders to feel free, those who live in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Aba and all parts of the state to feel free to come back to their villages, spend time, spend money and stimulate the economy in the villages so that our people will also have a good life, that is how economy moves,” he stated.
He called on the well-to-do Abians who reside outside the state to begin to visit their communities more frequently as a way of stimulating the local economy.
Governor Otti hinted that the whole idea of embarking on the road project was to strategically open up the communities so that the people could begin to enjoy good life, stressing that all his administration was doing was to ensure that the state maintained her position as the first.
“How can you be first when your roads from every nook and cranny are in serious dilapidation? How can you be first if your hospitals are now where people go to and don’t come out alive? How can you be first if your schools are in serious state of disrepair? How can you be first if your people can not sleep with their two eyes closed? How can you be first if the environment is littered with garbage?”
“Any time you breathe, you breathe in foul air, so those are the things we decided to deal with as quickly as we took over office and we are very intentional about that.”
The Governor thanked Abians for their support and implored them to discharge their civic responsibilities of paying their taxes and other legitimate levies to enable government do more for them.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Works, Otumchere Oti disclosed that the project was divided into three sections while section one of the road construction covered Umuahia to Uzuakoli.
He thanked the governor for his commitment to ensuring that all nooks and crannies of the state received government’s attention, with respect to road infrastructure.
The Commissioner disclosed that the first phase covering Umuahia to Uzuakoli was to be rehabilitated into a two-lane road, adding that the contract included repair of failed sections, construction of culverts and drainages as well as provision of street lights.
He encouraged the communities to cooperate with the contractors to enable them deliver the job on schedule.
In their speeches, the Mayors of Umuahia North LGA, Victor Ikeji; that of Isuikwuato, Young Onyeike, and that of Ohafia, David Ogba-Onuoha appreciated Governor Otti for being steadfast in his vision and noted that in less than one year the governor had transformed Abia into a huge construction site.
They said that the flag off of the road construction was a manifestation of the governor’s love for their people and expressed the hope that the project would enhance economic lives of the people.
The event attracted the presence of notable Abians, including Darlington Nwokocha; Deputy Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly, Austin Nmeregini; members of the State Executive Council, the second deputy Chairman Abia State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Uwakwe Ukaegbu and other traditional rulers.
