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Work At The Second Niger Bridge Has Stopped, Ohaneze Tells Buhari

Published

7 years ago

November 14, 2017

PRESIDENT General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo Tuesday told President Muhammadu Buhari who is on a two-day working visit to Ebonyi State that work at the Second Niger Bridge had stopped.

The Ohaneze President also said that the Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu was under serious threat, while all infrastructure in the South East geopolitical zone have gone bad.

Nwodo who was addressing President Buhari on the myriads of problems facing the zone which he said had contributed to the restiveness in the area and predated the Buhari’s administration, became degenerated since the present government came into power.

According to him, “The Enugu Port Harcourt road is in an extremely bad condition and tortuous to our people. The Ninth Mile Oturkpo road is a car raker. The Aba Ikot Ekpene road is largely unmotorable. Work on the Second Niger Bridge has stopped, while the river Niger itself remains unnavigable due to the non implementation of the approved dredging contract.

“Our exit by air is also threatened and the poor state of Enugu international runway a few days ago, Ethiopian airline tires were damaged as It was landing on that airport threatening the lives of the lives of the passengers there.

“The terminal building and the cargo warehouse have also been abandoned. Our local industries and small scale enterprises are folding up not only due to the little allocation of revenue due to our state and local government, because of the marginalisation in the creation of local governments and states, but also because only nine percent of nationally generated power is allocated to the South East.

“Gas reserves that abound in the South East are being piped to Lagos and Northern Nigeria without any of it… around the industrial clusters in our stated.

“Unemployment, hunger and starvation pervade our land. This is a very dangerous environment for peace owing to wide spread dissatisfaction.

“These problems predated your administration but has reached a quintessence under your watch. We believe as a general trained to access dangerous circumstances and equipped with courage to confront them decisively, you will seize the opportunity to give our people the much needed assurance of a quick remedial action.

“Our governors are doing their best giving their limited resources in view of the declining revenue of the country, we propose that the concession of federal roads in the South East be given to the South East governors so that partnering with the private investors, we can build the roads ourselves to our taste and standards, assuring you of its durability.

“This will therefore make it possible for the Federal Government to have enough funds to take up the railway task in the South East and expand and upgrade them to standard pages.

“Your Excellency, I have no doubts in my mind after our last discussions with you, that you will decisively and expeditiously address the many issues we presented to you and some of which I have highlighted today.”

Also speaking, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ebonyi State chapter, Very Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali said that the Christian religious leaders in the country were praying for freedom if religious worship as was contained in the constitution.

The CAN Chairman urged President Buhari to insist that that provision of freedom of worship was kept