The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi has expressed satisfaction with the level of the job on the Aba axis of Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway.
Sen Umahi, who said that the contractor has so far done a good job, however attributed the delay in the completion of the road project first awarded about 10 years ago, to high cost of construction materials.
According to him, when he came on board in August 2023, bitumen was N500,000 per ton, but today the price has skyrocketed to N1.3 million per ton, hence the demand for concrete, sourced almost 95 per cent sourced locally.
The Minister however decried the level of trading activities on the road still undergoing rehabilitation and warned that offenders risk jail terms.
He directed the arrest of persons trading on the completed section of the Aba axis of the road.
According to him, “While Mr President is passing through sleepless nights on how to solve the problems of a very bad inherited economy, Nigerians should support him and also support themselves. We wouldn’t like a situation where after the Federal Government had spent so much here, we see people building and trading on the road.”
He stated that it appears that Aba people like to inflict injuries on themselves as they can not even allow the contractor to work.
“They drive against traffic and use the completed road as car parks, trading and dumping of refuse. The whole of refuse generated in Aba is being dumped on this road. It is not encouraging at all,” he said.
Sen Umahi appealed to Abia state governor to set up a task force to clear the road of trading activities as the only way to end the unnecessary bottleneck hindering the road construction completion.
Earlier, the Federal Comptroller of Works in Abia, Tony Onwubiko, said that the project covered about 57km from Abia Tower in Umuahia to the Railway Crossing at Alaoji in Osisioma Local Government Area.
The Minister also inspected the NNPC Mega Filling Station at Nkwoegwu in Umuahia section of the Enugu-PH Expressway, near Abia Tower of Peace where he expressed his happiness with the work done by Setraco Nigeria Limited, and urged the company to correct some errors he detected.
