The Minister of Works David Umuahi has commended Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, for improved development in the state in just a few months that he has been in office.
Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State, was in Abia last Thursday to inspect ongoing federal projects in the state.
The Minister said although he is not an apostle of 100 days celebration, Abia residents and indeed the South-East are blessed to have Otti as his handwork is already visible.
“Let me thank you for a lot of improvement that you have done in the state just few months now. I don’t believe in 100 days in office, I don’t believe in two years in office, I believe in working for the people and let the people see what you are doing.
“There is nothing meaningful that anybody who intends to work can achieve in 100 days. You may not even design a meaningful project in 100 days. But we have been seeing what you’ve been doing because you’ve been around, you understand the pains of your people.
“And so I commend you and also congratulate Abia people because they are going to see quite progress,” Umahi said during a courtesy visit to Governor Otti, while assuring that Otti will make Abia and the South-East proud,” Umahi said.
The Minister told Otti that Abia has about 11 federal road projects ongoing in the state.
He identified the roads as Section One of the Port Harcourt-Enugu Express Road, which runs from Lokpanta to Abia Tower in Umuahia, which is hundred percent completed with a Trailer Park; Section Two of the road runs from Umuahia Tower to Aba.
Others are rehabilitation of Umuahia-Ikwuano to Ikot Ekpene-Umudike Road with a length of 49.2 kilometers; Section of Nkporo-Abiriba-Ohafia Road, awarded in 2012, that has been abandoned; Bende-Arochukwu-Ohafia section one, awarded in 2018; Aba-Owerri Road, awarded in 2020 and others.
Governor Otti thanked the Minister for visiting Abia and expressed his government’s readiness to partner with the federal government to fix the federal roads in the state.
He expressed worry over the stress people go through to get to Aba from Port Harcourt and vice versa, saying that a journey of 30 minutes now takes people not less than three hours to complete.
According to the Governor, this has dealt a deadly blow to the markets in Aba. He informed the Minister that he had already engaged a construction company, CCECC, to do some palliative works on the road and get one of the lanes working.
The Governor also said he would also like to engage with the Ministry of Works on the Umuahia-Bende-Abriba-Ohafia, all the way to Arochukwu, Federal road, which was first awarded by the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) when former President Muhammadu Buhari was the Chairman of PTF, under General Sani Abacha, and was abandoned and later re-awarded in 2011 by erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan and also abandoned.
“If I’m able to find money, I will like to do the road and whenever he is able to, he will reimburse us. We believe that we should support the Federal Government in delivering dividends of democracy to our people,” Governor Otti remarked.