Otti reconstructs Ukwa community road abandoned for decades
*Community leaders commend Governor
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
As Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti , embarks on the reconstruction of the oil-rich Umuokomiri Obehie community road, a major gateway to the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt expressway, leaders of the community have expressed their immense joy over the development.
The community leaders said that people and commuters generally have suffered unimaginable hardship because of the bad condition of the road and described the government of Dr. Alex Otti which has rallied to the community’s assistance after several decades of abandonment as a people-oriented and responsive government.
Umuokomiri Obehie, an oil-producing community in Ukwa West local government area, is a major gateway to the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt expressway. The about 1,5-kilometre road connecting the community and Obehie people to the expressway has remained dilapidated and impassable for decades.
Abia State interventionist agency – Abia State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission (ASOPADEC), is doing the road on behalf of the state government.
The people, by their own account, had to park their vehicles at the Port Harcourt expressway end and trek home because of the condition of the road. Apart from being dilapidated, the road was also waterlogged. According to them, hardship has been their bread of sorrow as successive governments in the state had shunned their calls to fix the road.
However, respite came their way recently as the new, action-oriented General Manager of ASOPADEC, Venerable Joshua Onyike, awarded the reconstruction of the road which has attained 98 percent completion with drainages and asphalt overlay in place.
Commenting on the development, the immediate past Councillor who represented Obehie Ward at the Ukwa West Legislative Council, Hon. Chimeko Ezekiel, while applauding the state government for wiping away tears, noted that the era of fake promises was over for the people of Umuokomiri community. According to him, the Otti administration has ushered in a new dawn in the area after years of suffering occasioned by the deplorable condition of the road.
“We have been in a big mess for a long time now, praying for a way out before the intervention of the State Government through ASOPADEC. The road was waterlogged, deserted, and completely abandoned; our people park their cars at the junction and trek for sometimes over one kilometer to get to their houses, but today the narrative has changed,” the former Council lawmaker said.
Ezekile said it was like a dream to the people when bulldozers roared into action on the road, adding that, “everybody is happily enjoying the road end-to-end at the moment and we are eternally grateful to God for giving us Governor Otti.”
“The former eras made fake promises to us and were unresponsive to our plight. But our story has changed today and the impression we had about ASOPADEC has also changed for good because of the pragmatic leadership of the present administration. This is a prayer answered for the Umuokomiri community,” he added.
Another community leader in Umuokomiri, Chief Ben Nwokagbara, described the feat of recovering the road as unprecedented in the history of the community as this remained the only time the community was witnessing such swift intervention from any agency of the state government.
Nwokagbara promised that the community would do everything within their power to ensure that the road would be adequately maintained, as the untold hardship suffered by commuters on the road before now was unimaginable.
