ABIA state Government says it has embarked on the construction and rehabilitation of a total of 52 roads across the 17 Local Government Areas since the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the Government has said that the Federal Government has not refunded to it the sum of N21 billion it spent to work on Federal roads in the state between 2011 till date, but noted though that the Federal Government has promised to pay the money.
According to the Commissioner for Works, Prince Kingsley Mgbeahuru, some of the roads embarked on early in the year have been completed and ready to be commissioned. Some of them will indeed be commissioned today in Aba.
Among the 10 roads completed in Aba and scheduled to be commissioned are Geometric Access road which leads to the private power station owned by former Power Minister, Prof. Bath Nnaji which will soon be inaugurated; Azikiwe, Milverton, Brass/Faulks Junction, Omenazu/Faulks, Constitution Crescent and Omoba.
Mgbeahuru however lamented that some contractors were too slow on their work and warned that the government would not tolerate that. He specifically condemned the contractor handling the Ohanku and Eke Akpara-Osisioma roads in Aba as not being serious.
Mgbeahuru also condemned situations where roads built by the state were being credited to some other people and explained that the Ovim-Acha road is the project of Abia state Government but contracted out to Army Engineers.
“As I am talking to you now we are on site on 52 roads across the state and Aba has many of them; and many of the roads are completed in Aba and ready for commissioning. Aba drainage is on-going. We have done big drainages in some streets. We are also doing roads to the factories and industries to encourage them to return to production.
“But it is painful that when we do roads some unscrupulous people credit it to some other people. Our sign posts are there. Governor T.A. Orji is doing well; he is about the best governor we have seen and we would not like people to malign him for just selfish political reason”, the commissioner said.
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