For several years, the people of Abia North literally saw h*ll travelling to and from their verious communities through the Umuahia-Uzuakoli-Abiriba-Ohafia road. Being a zone that has the highest number of people that travel back home during festive seasons, especially Christmas, the road always offered a bad experience to remember during such seasons.
It looked as if there wasn’t going to be an end to their suffering, until the emergence of Dr. Alex Otti as the Governor of Abia State.
Beyond promising to fix the road during his election campaigns, Governor Otti knew that due to the strategic nature of the road, it would require an urgent intervention, hence he quickly awarded the road and flagged off its reconstruction early in 2024.
The amount of joy, excitement and solidarity witnessed at the three flag-off points on that day, spoke loudly about the people’s sense of appreciation and relief.
To ameliorate the suffering the people would encounter if the reconstruction is not executed expeditiously given the length of the road which is 67 kilometres, the Governor ensured that the road was divided into three sections and awarded to three different reputable construction companies which included, Craneburg, CCECC and Ferotex, with a directive for them to work simultaneously and deliver in record time.
As could be attested to by users of the road, the contractors have been working assiduously to ensure they deliver as directed by Governor Otti.
Outside the speed with which they have been executing the project, they have also continued to prioritise quality by adhering to the agreed specifications.
Sadly, Old Abia oppressors who used the road to siphon billions after years of fake and failed campaign promises without dropping a bucket of asphalt on the road, yesterday launched a petty propaganda to misrepresent the facts on ground and mislead the public using a short clip that was intended to present the government as one that executes substandard jobs.
For those who are not familiar with the road in question, the clip attached here shows a section of the road between Akara and Alayi where there are portholes near the valley on the right side of the road leading to Alayi, which is part of the areas that were earlier scrapped.
In a bid to create a motorable space for motorists while construction goes on, labourers were engaged to do a palliative work on the bad spot as an adhoc arrangement to ensure free flow of traffic and reduce the damage on vehicle tyres pending when main construction work will get to that portion of the road. It’s the clip that the Old Abia Propagandists are sharing on social media and their WhatsApp groups to mislead the public and give the false impression that the government is doing a substandard job.
Going front and back from this area in question would show a massive construction work going on at different sections of the 67 kilometre road, including standard drainage works.
Anyone who knows Governor Alex Otti will agree that no Contractor would dare do a substandard job on any of our roads and get away with it; not under Governor Otti’s watch, so the propaganda video should be ignored as it doesn’t represent our style and standard.
The truth is that, these Old Abia Propagandists are getting badly overwhelmed by the success stories coming out from every nook and cranny of Abia, so in a bid to mislead the public, especially those who don’t live in Abia, they have concluded plans to drive all kinds of false and negative narratives against the state, and could go to the extent of instigating violence and insecurity just to present the state in bad light and stop Abians from coming back home to celebrate the Christmas, an occasion that would give them the opportunity to see and feel the progress being made by the Otti led-government. The question is; must the embittered and badly bruised and broken opposition punish innocent Abians for getting rid of them at the polls in 2023?
It wouldn’t be a bad idea at this point to request that Abians pray for these toxic opposition elements. because they are presently broken and embittered, and could go to any extent to express their anger and frustration.
Ferdinand Ekeoma
November 16, 2024.
