NDDC begins 2-week remediation work on Calabar-Itu-Ikot Ekpene-Aba highway

Acting managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ibim Semenitari, has directed the immediate commencement of remediation work on the Calabar-Itu-Ikot Ekpene-Aba Federal Highway, now cut into two by flood.

Several stretches of the road, which has been abandoned for more than 20 years by the Federal Government, have become impassable to vehicular activity, as several travellers have had to spend several days on the terrible spots.

An alternative route, the Ikot Ekpene-Umuahia Federal Highway, which had been used by vehicles for over 10 years, is now in a worse state ever in history.

Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Works, Power, Works and Housing, which recently slated the 40-year old federal highway for rehabilitation under its capital projects works and services, is yet to unveil any contract detail.

Motorists and other road users, who have been experiencing nightmare on the long-neglected federal highway, commended Semenitari for the NDDC intervention.

Weeks back, the Power, Works and Housing ministry said, in a bid to implement some capital projects under various works and services, listed the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene Highway in category A of the number of federal highways it slated for construction/ rehabilitation across the country.

During her inspection of the highway, the NDDC MD saw that several sections of the road, built in 1976, and had scarcely seen rehabilitation work, had collapsed.

She hinted that directors and engineers at the NDDC headquarters office in Port Harcourt might all relocate to the site until the remediation work, expected to last for two weeks, was completed.

Last month, the Federal Government had slated for rehabilitation the Calabar-Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpe-Aba federal highway, abandoned by successive administrations at federal level for over 20 years, paying deaf ears to many years of cries by millions of users of the highway from Abia, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.

Also, weeks back, Cross River State, whose people have borne the greatest brunt of the road’s bad state, including other federal highways in the state, apparently not ready to wait any longer for Federal intervention, which had not come for over 10 years, embarked on massive intervention works on the roads.

The state government also said it was highly perturbed by the sufferings motorists and commuters go through on the highway, due to its deplorable state.

The state government has equally demanded for the Federal Government to refund it about N20 billion it claimed it had spent on the Calabar-Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene-Aba highway over the past 10 years.

It is yet uncertain if the Federal Government, now much beleaguered by economic downturn, would consent to reimburse the state for the monies it spent on the all-important highway, which also connects to Republic of Cameron, Nigeria’s eastern neighbour.