Emmanuel’s road projects in Akwa Ibom are of high quality, commissioner insists

With the vow by the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration to link all local councils in Akwa with accessible roads, the state government can’t construct any highway that would cave in within a short period.

With the above assertion, the Commissioner for Works, Ephriam Inyang, told newsmen yesterday in that no road constructed by the current administration had failed.

He debunked reports that 97 per cent of the highways executed by the Emmanuel government had crashed, noting: “With a problem on one or two out of the 57 roads currently being constructed across the state does not amount to 97 per cent of the supposedly failed roads.”

The commissioner admitted that the heavy downpour was slowing down several road projects in the state.

Inyang maintained that some of the roads alleged to have failed had not been completed but were at the asphalting stage, pointing out that he had ordered the contractors to suspend work until the rains abate.

He stated that the error discovered in one of the commissioned roads had been corrected, adding that government was waiting for the downpours to ease for continuation of work.

On the Airport/Okpoedi road, the commissioner explained that it was the only project where the contractors were evicted on account of poor job, stating that he had instructed the new handlers to adhere to the ministry’s specifications.

Inyang said he had been pressuring contractors to speed up work while not losing sight of quality.

The commissioner decried the abandonment of the Calabar-Itu road project initiated by the Federal Government, wondering why the highway was not captured in the 2020 budget, as the contractor, Julius Berger, that was supposedly hired for the job, was allegedly never mobilised to site.

He reiterated that the road award at the eve of the 2019 elections was “a political move”, calling on the Federal Government to take steps in repairing “federal roads in the state, as many of them are death traps.”

Inyang asserted: “The report by Victor Ekwere, member representing Mkpat Enin State Constituency, that 97 per cent of the roads done in the state since the coming of Governor Udom Emmanuel have failed is an absolute fallacy, it is not correct.

“He was sponsored by some evil men to write down that report and I will prove him absolutely wrong.”