Follow Us on Google
…As abandoned Otuocha-Nzam-Innoma-Iheaka-Abaji road project is re-awarded
…As abandoned Otuocha-Nzam-Innoma-Iheaka-Abaji road project is re-awarded
• Road to now cost N34 billion ν Senator Nwoye happy, says his efforts have paid off
By Chibuike Okafor
After many years, work will soon begin again on the abandoned and forgotten Otuocha-Nzam-Innoma-Iheaka-Abaji federal road linking Anambra State with Kogi State.
The Otuocha-Nzam-Inoma-Iheaka-Abaji road, a 30-kilometre road, was awarded on December 3, 2009 by the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration to NigerCat Construction Limited. The company achieved the first binder asphalting of 7km out of the 30km road before the project was abandoned.
Also, due to the dam flushing into Cameroun in 2017, the entire area surrounding the project was flooded and the road submerged.
It would be recalled that Dr Tony Nwoye as a member representing Anambra East and Anambra West in the House of Representatives in the 8th National Assembly had made a passionate appeal for the abandoned road to be included in the national budget for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
When Nwoye was in the House of Representatives, he wrote several letters to the Ministry of Works under Babatunde Fashola over the state of the road, an effort he did not relent on until it was recently actualised.
Therefore, upon his election as a Senator representing Anambra North in the current 10th National Assembly, he has reactivated the demand for the reconstruction of the road.
In pursuit of this, Senator Nwoye has paid several visits to the Ministry of Works, armed with a letter of “Special Request for Inclusion in 2023 Supplementary Budget and also for Reaward for Redesign and Reconstruction/Rehabilitation.”
His letter was graciously granted by both the Senate and the Ministry of Works, hence the 2023 Supplementary Budget of the Federal Government, which made provision for funds for the abandoned road that is very important to the people of Anambra and Kogi states.
Today, the efforts of Senator Nwoye have paid off as President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi have come to the rescue of the people of Anambra North by re-awarding the road for the sum of N34 billion.
An ostensibly elated Dr Nwoye, thanked the Minister of Works, Umahi; President Tinubu and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio for placing the road on top priority.
According to Nwoye, the contractor handling the road will move to site immediately the water level drops, as well as funds made available to them, adding that upon completion of the road, the journey from Anambra to Abuja would be reduced by at least two to three hours, just as many communities along the road would be opened up.
The reconstruction of the road this time will not be like the last one as Nwoye assured that proper evaluation, monitoring and oversight will be carried out once the contractor moves to site in order to ensure that quality work is done by the contractor and also to ensure that there is value for the money given to him.
