The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has praised Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, for bringing noticeable advancements to the State in just a few months in office.
Umahi, who was in Abia on Thursday to check ongoing Federal projects, stated that while he is not a supporter of the 100-day celebration, Abians, and the South East are fortunate to have Governor Otti, whose handiwork is visibly visible.
“Let me thank you for a lot of improvement that you have done in the State just a 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 letting 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 a progress,” Umahi said during a courtesy visit to Governor Otti, while assuring that Otti will make Abia and the South East proud.
The minister, a former governor of Ebonyi State, informed Otti that Abia now has 11 Federal road projects underway. Some of the roads he mentioned are: Section One of the Port Harcourt-Enugu Express Road, which runs from Lokpanta to Abia Tower in Umuahia, and is completely completed with a Trailer Park; Section Two of the road runs from Umuahia Tower to Aba; Rehabilitation of Umuahia-Ikwuano to Ikot Ekpene-Umudike Road with a length of 49.2 kilometers; Section of Nkpor, 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.
He solicited Governor Otti’s help to sort out the issues affecting the building of a trailer park at Arungwa Aba, saying that the State government should acquire the place and partner with the Federal Government to develop it with the private sector.
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 decried the stress people go through to get to Aba from Port Harcourt and vice versa, saying that a journey of 30 minutes now takes travelers more 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 told the works minister that he would also like to engage with him on the Umuahia-Bende-Abiriba-Ohafia road, 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.
Umahi was joined on the visit by Senator Onyekachi Nweobonyi, Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts, and Engr. B. U. Obioha, Southeast Director Federal Highway, among others.