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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has appealed to the Senate Adhoc Committee on East-West Road and Eleme-Ogoni Corridor to ensure actual commencement of reconstruction work on the East-West Road to end the intractable sufferings experienced by the people using the road.
Governor Fubara gave the charge when members of the Senate Adhoc Committee, led by its Chairman, Senator Abdul Ningi Ahmed, paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday.
He recalled years of deductions from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) account by the Federal Government to fund critical national projects.
The governor wondered why the East-West Road was never captured and funded especially when it leads to locations where essential national economic assets are operational.
Fubara emphasised that the most deplorable sections were not even more than a length of 20 kilometres from the Eleme junction interchange bridge into Ogoniland on the East-West Road, which cannot be too expensive for the federal government to handle.
The governor enjoined the committee not to end their activities with only field assessment of the state of the road, conducting public hearing and submission of their reports, but push further to see to commencement and completion of reconstruction work on the road.
He said: “We have always complained about the dilapidated state of the East-West Road, moreover, the Eleme junction to Onne route but nothing happened. It is a federal road, but it is my people that are suffering. So, I want to appeal to you, that it should not just be public hearing, or a question of how much was paid and not paid. You should move far from much talking to making actual commitment.”
Chairman of the Senate Adhoc Committee on East-West Road and Eleme-Ogoni Corridor, Senator Ahmed, informed the governor that their visit was predicated on a motion adopted by Senate concerning the East-West Road and they were physically assessing its current condition with public hearing to come later, which would assist in the reconstruction of the road to required standard.
The governor later took the Ad-hoc Committee on a visit to the failed portions of the Eleme section of the road.
