By Musa Baba Adamu
The Senate has expressed regrets that four succeeding federal governments failed to complete the East-West Road, which stretches from the western part of the country to the southernmost part.
Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the East-West Road, Senator Abdul Ningi, spoke during a courtesy call on Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu in Calabar.
He said: “The East-West Road which is supposed to represent fairness and justice of a major economic hub of the country has not met that aspiration even by four succeeding Presidents starting from Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yarádua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.
“We have traversed the East-West Road from Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and now Cross River, it is disturbing what we have found in the course of this assignment.
“The inability of the overseeing agencies of government to come together and give the road the much needed attention.
“There is complete lack of synergy between the NDDC, Federal Ministry of Works, FERMA and the states which the road passes through.
“After the first leg of this assignment, we are going to have a two-day public hearing on why the East-West Road has remained as it is, uncompleted.”
Ningi said the lawmakers will want to know who the contractors are and how much they have received, so that people will not just collect money from the Federal Government and disappear.
He bemoaned the state of the Calabar-Itu Highway, after spending over six hours on a journey of only one hour from Calabar to Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State.
“I have never seen and experienced what we saw on that road anywhere. Thousands of trucks stuck in traffic with little or no motion.
“If we didn’t have the military with us and even at that, we spent over six hours plus on a major highway.
“So, I believe that something urgent needs to be done including the fifth and final stage of the East-West Road which is the Calabar-Oron end of the road.
“Yes there is infrastructural deficit across the country, but what we witnessed, was something else on that road.”
Addressing the committee, Governor Bassey Otu commended the Senate for its effort at the completion of the East-West Road, while making case for more funding for the state.
Otu decried the delay in completion of the road with its attendant negative impacts.
“The East-West Road is one of the several critical infrastructures that have been left to decay in our country over time.
“Even in this period of palliatives, if there is anything worse than not having the palliatives, then it is when the main arteries that connect the state and should help in carrying the palliatives are not there. “
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