“To maintain our usual cordial brotherly relationship, my government will rebuild Umuaro -Ekwereazu-Nto Edino Road from Obingwa LGA to Akwa Ibom state”, Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has declared.
The Abia governor who gave the assurance at Obingwa at the weekend disclosed that his administration constructed the road initially because it provides a strategic linkage between Abia and Akwa Ibom States.
He made this known while commissioning the Umuaro-Umuopara-Amano Road in Obingwa LGA. He observed that the reason for the failure of some portions of the road has been identified, adding that the road was originally designed to be a Trunk C road designed to serve the rural communities in that part of the state.
The Abia chief executive regretted that despite the fact that the road was build for the usage of cars and other light vehicles, heavy duty vehicles ply it ceaselessly, thus leading to its collapse.
Motorists going from Abia to Akwa Ibom and vice visa, according to him, have abandoned the Aba Ikot Ekpene federal highway as their main route, pointing out that the Umuaro -Ekwereazu -Nto Edino Road unfortunate became the only route for heavy duty and dead weight vehicles, particularly those conveying several hundreds of tons of cement from Akwa Ibom State through Aba to other parts of the country.
He added that the road caved in to the massive pressure of these dead weight vehicles that ply the road daily in their hundreds.
The governor described the road as key to the economic development of the State especially the Aba area, noting that till date and even with some portions of it in a bad shape, it remains the only link through which vehicles can get to Ikot Ekpene from Aba in 45 minutes.
Ikpeazu stated that soil tests have been conducted on the road and that a proper design for the project has been concluded, and that a contractor will return to the site assuring that the road will be rebuilt to a standard that will comfortably fit the nature of the traffic on the road.
He observed that the road has served our people and our economy creditably in the last couple of years and will not be abandoned under any circumstances whatsoever.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
