….. Commissioner.
Akaiso Eyo-Akaiso, Uyo.
The commissioner, Ministry of Work and fire Service in Akwa Ibom State, Prof. Eno Ibanga has reiterated the commitment by Governor Umo Eno to complete and Inaugurate all road infrastructural projects inherited from the immediate past administration of Deacon Udom Emmanuel.
He gave the assurance in a press conference he addressed to journalists practicing in Akwa Ibom State last Sunday at NUJ Press Center in Uyo.
Fielding questions from journalists who sought to know what government is doing to mitigate suffering by users of internal roads in Uyo, he said commuters, motorists and the business community in Akwa Ibom State have continued to suffer losses of man hour, vehicle breakdown, poor business patronage due to the closure of part of the Calabar Itu Road at the Itam Junction axis where a drainage is been constructed from Tabernacle Road across the highway.
Commercial vehicles coming from Calabar now drop their passengers a few metres from the construction site and the commuters have to carry their loads and navigate across the drainage while heavy duty trucks conveying cement, chirpings, stones and foodstuffs from Cross River to Akwa Ibom and other neighbouring states are expected to go through Ikot Ekpene but the current pump price of petroleum products seem to prompt the drivers to avoid the route in a bid to conserve fuel.
Motorists plying the Ikpa Road, Uyo Village Road and other intra city road are suffering because heavy trucks now use these arteries to connect to Calabar Itu Road thereby damaging these streets.
The Akwa Ibom State Government seems helpless as truck drivers using the Calabar Itu defy government directive against using the internal roads in Uyo, the state capital while going or coming from the highway.
The state commissioner for Works and Fire Service, Professor Eno Ibanga, who seems frustrated by the slow pace of the drainage work and the disobedience of truck drivers stated, “we understand the challenges faced by commuters in seeking for alternative routes as a result of this construction.”
Rather than using the Ikot Ekpene axis of the Calabar Itu Road as an alternative while remedial works is going on at the Tabernacle Road area of the road in Itu local government area, the drivers prefer the shorter Ikpa and Uyo Village Road thereby damaging the roads that were not meant for heavy duty vehicle.
There is no record of arrest or prosecution of any driver or truck owner as majority of these vehicles belong to government contractors or have links with influential and politically exposed persons in the state.
Prof. Ibanga lamented the deviant behavior of these truck drivers while briefing newsmen on road projects and infrastructural expansion embarked upon by the administration of Pastor Umo Bassey Eno.
Prof. Ibanga lamented: “Unfortunately, against Government directive, Heavy Duty trucks refused to ply the approved diverted routes for instead they joined other lighter vehicles to use these intra-city roads thereby exerting incalculably harmful pressure on these roads. It is cogent to explain that these intra-city routes were not meant for constant use by these heavy duty trucks. Intra-city Roads like Ikpa Road and Uyo Village road have been badly affected.
“However, this administration, being a responsive one, has immediately swung into action with the immediate award of contract for the construction of Uyo village Road and Ikpa Road stretching up to Udoette Street.’
0n the construction of a drainage across the Itam Junction azis of the Calabar Itu Road from Tabernacle Road, the commissioner explained that the greater part of the work needed for the swift completion of the Tabernacle road has been the excavation which from professional advice from certified civil Engineers should go at least 11 meters deep. This of course is a very deep excavation work which unfortunately was slowed down by perennial rainfall and the absence is the usual August break which we have experienced in Akwa Ibom State this year.
The reality remains that if the contractors had ignored the rains and continued with the excavation, there is a tendency of accidents or poor project delivery, Prof. Ibanga claimed.
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