Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been commended for continuing the reconstruction of the road that linked Abia State with Imo State, including the component bridge that was destroyed during the civil war.
Hon, Sam Onuigbo made the commendation on Sunday in a press conference in Umuahia following “positive reports” he received on the state of works on the federal road linking Abia to Imo and the one linking it to Akwa Ibom State.
The Ubakala-Umunwanwa-Udo Adobi-Achingalli Road has been in a state of disrepair since the civil war ended in 1970.
With the destroyed bridge left unattended to, it has been a herculean task to access Imo State from the south-eastern end of Umuahia South Local Government.
But Onuigbo said that he was happy that things were changing for better as the progress of work on the road was satisfactory while a section of the bridge has been completed.
He said: “Electioneering has come and gone and this (Tinubu) administration should be commended for maintaining admirable momentum to complete the road projects awarded by the last administration.
Onuigbo stated that the interstate road was very strategic it would reduce the journey from Umuahia to Imo Airport to less than an hour.
The former federal lawmaker, who represented Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency, noted that the road project was inherited by the Tinubu’s administration from former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to him, it was heartwarming that the link road with Imo was not abandoned by the new administration, just as it has also sustained work on Umuahia-Ikwuano-Ikot Ekpene Road linking Abia State and Akwa Ibom State.
On the skill acquisition centre at Ubakala and the federal secretariat projects that he championed as a federal lawmaker, Onuigbo noted that the skill centre has reached 85 percent completion.
He stated that work on the federal secretariat project, which had been eluding Abia for over three decades, would soon start as land has been secured within the state’s capital territory.
The two-term federal lawmaker hinged his optimism on the fact that the present Abia State Governor, Mr.Alex Otti, unlike his predecessor, has “shown willingness” to cooperate with the federal government to realise the project.
Onuigbo, who represented the South-east on the board of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), said that the agency is working hard to achieve its mandate.
He said that the North-east, which constituted one-third of Nigeria’s land mass, was devastated by insurgency, adding that a master plan has been adopted to rebuild the zone, comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States.
The NEDC’s board member explained that the benefits of the interventionist activities of NEDC would not be enjoyed by only the indigenes of the six states that make up the North-east zone but all Nigerians resident in the area.
He said: “Devastation of North-east was not selective. Other Nigerians living in the area were also affected,” adding that whatever the NEDC was doing to rebuild the zone is for the benefit of all Nigerians.
