Former President Olusegun Obasanjo will today inaugurate the 23.4 kilometres Etinan -Eket Road in Akwa Ibom State.
The road covers four local government areas of Etinan, Nsit Ubium, Nsit Ibom and Eket. The road which has three bridges, according to the special assistant to the governor on research and documentation with oversight media coordination duties, Mr Essien Ndueso, is a “strategic road and will be officially inaugurated by Obasanjo, as the special guest on Tuesday.”
Addressing the people at Eket, Etinan, Nsit Ubium and Nsit Ibom portions of the dual carriage way, the governor’s aide said the deplorable state of the road, cutting – off various communities and preventing agricultural produce from being evacuated to major markets in Uyo, the state capital and other adjoining LGAs including Oron necessitated its construction.
He commended his boss, Governor Udo Emmanuel, for mustering enough political will to fix road infrastructure across the state and interventions in ecological problems and other development programmes.
“The governor has repeatedly assured that he would not leave the state the same way he met it, and surely, he has added value to the state and the people as you can see. This road has been a serious nightmare to the people of the four LGAs because they were virtually boxed in due to no better access road to link the state capital and other places.
“Before now, people living in these areas used to navigate their way out through the bumpy track roads in the local communities, today, many of them are smiling as you can see because the talk and do governor has made them to have that sense of belonging. Now, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo, will commission this project on Tuesday, rural business activities would be a boom and the local farmers, transporters, shop owners will have a field day in their trades,” he said.
Lending credence to this, Chief Okon Inyang, a community leader in Eket, recalled that “socio – economic activities for many years in this part of the state had been at the lowest ebb, and transportation in and out of this area was always a big problem because this long stretch of road was a complete eyesore and unmotorable.”
In the same vein, Comrade Ita Frank, a youth leader in one of the villages in Nsit Ubium LGA, commended outgoing governor, “for bringing light to the area with the completion of the road.”
“This is an entirely agrarian community with mostly farmers and small holder businesses. Sometimes, most farm produce here rots away because farmers could not evacuate their farm items timely to major markets due to the very bad nature of the road. We thank the governor, because most of our youths here, who are jobless are into commercial tricycle, motorcycle and mini bus operations, and many of them are heaving a sigh of relief and are thankful to the governor for this magnanimous gesture because now, their business will peak again,” he said.
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