By Iniabasi Billie, Uyo
Akwa Ibom youths across five local government areas in the state are threatening to protest the abandonment of the 55.1 kilometre Super Highway project meant for the Ibom Deep Seaport and Industrial City.
The Super Highway initiated by the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel has three spurs and spans across Ibeno, Eket, Esit Eket, Mbo and Urue Offong Oruko local government areas.
Mr Kingsley Udoh, the Chairman of Ibeno Monitoring Team told our correspondent on Tuesday during a visit to the Ibeno axis of the superhighway site that the youths are tired of the unfulfilled promises of the State Government with regards to the project.
He said many of the youths who worked at the site of the project were currently owed monies for the work carried out on the road, while compensation on the land used for the Superhighway was yet to be paid to the owners.
He stated that the affected communities have vowed to barricade the road in protest until the State Government resumes work on the project which started in 2017 but was abandoned in 2018.
Udoh who revealed that the project was awarded by the State Government to Ebla Construction Ltd under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, said unfortunately, the vendor later abandoned the site after spending about N700 million on the project without the state government contributing its counterpart fund.
“If government does not complete this project, we would protest. When the Superhighway project was awarded to our area, we were happy; right now we are not happy. Ibeno people are not happy especially the youths. We are very, very angry. We are feeling bad.
“Presently, the Superhighway is abandoned, and we are sad. Take the message to the Governor, we are not happy anymore.
“When we come out from the community to this junction and we turn our eyes to see that the job is abandoned, we feel sad,” he said.
Reacting to the alleged abandonment of the project, Commissioner for Works, Mr. Ephraim Inyangeyen blamed the Federal Government for the delay in the construction of the 12 lane Ibom Super Highway.
He mentioned that the Federal Government has not approved the construction of Ibom Deep Seaport for the state, noting that the road was initiated for the Seaport operations and the proposed Ibom Industrial city.
He stated that the State Government decided to slow down on the project after 15 out of the 55.1 kilometres of the road had been executed, when it observed the reluctance of the Federal Government to give approval for the construction of the Ibom Deep Seaport.
He said, “The Ibom Super Highway project did not stop in 2018. The funding of the project stopped in 2019. It was when we observed the reluctance of the federal government to give us the necessary approval for Ibom Deep Seaport, we decided to slow down.
“The State Government believed it was more critical for us to persuade the Federal government and get approval for the construction of the Deep Seaport first. This is because if we don’t build the Deep Seaport, the 55.1 kilometer Super Highway is not economically viable to sustain.
“But it is only when the seaport approval is in our hand that we can be sure of doing the road. So our concentration now is on how to get all the approvals promised by the Federal government. If the deep seaport is not there, we don’t need the road.
“The reason for initiating the 12-lane Super Highway is primarily for us to create access to the Deep Seaport, and the Ibom Industrial city and avert congestion. It is not meant for general purpose. So the story that the Super Highway has been abandoned is not correct.
“And we have not changed the Elba Construction Company that is handling the road. I have told the contractor to be patient, that the moment we get approval for the Deep Seaport, he will return to site. In fact Government is even owing him,” he stated.
