Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
Engr Timothy Nwachi, the chairman of Afikpo local government area of Ebonyi state, has described as a gateway to economic development the Wednesday Flagged- off Calabar, Ebonyi, Benue supper high road in Afikpo.
Nwachi said businesses will boom in Afikpo with the Ndibe Beach Bridge open through the road construction.
He thanked the federal and state governments for initiating such a project and assured that the Afikpo people would work with the contractors to ensure the smooth execution of the project.
“My heart is full of joy, full of satisfaction, full of fulfilment because of what happened today; the good people of Afikpo have been crying for it for a very long time. Right from the time of Eastern Central State, promises upon promises have always been made to cross that river and today, without much stress, without much lobbying, the good people of Afikpo have seen it come into fulfilment.
” I can simply tell you that I am satisfied, so happy, because I can see joy in the faces of my people. The ultimate desire of a good leader is to see happiness in his people’s faces. And today, who is who in Afikpo was in attendance?
Some took flights from Abuja, some took flights from Lagos, and some drove from Port Harcourt, only for them to be a witness to what happened today.
So I thank Mr. President, I thank our dear governor, the leader of the state, and I thank Honorable Minister, and all those who made today a success.
The promise we can only make to Mr. President and our dear governor is continuous support in all their programs and agendas.
This is the greatest political achievement in terms of benefit as a state, and as a community, as a local government that we have so far benefited.
We know the economic value of that bridge when it is completed. If let me put it this way, the local government has been locked for years, decades.
So that road will unlock the local government.
When you talk about support, what is the support? We’ve already synergized with the contractors upon their arrival. There are so many things I may not disclose, but all I know is that internally we’ve synergized with the contractors.
Two contractors are handling the project and two of them we synergize with them. Our local people are involved in keeping visual to their machines, equipment, and every material they are using.
At the same time, lending support to the expatriates who are also doing the work by way of ensuring that they do not encounter any form of danger as they do the work.
On the demolition of properties, Nwachi said, Yes, as the chief security officer of the local government, we’ve done a lot of community engagement in that regard. If you hear Senator Chief Agboti in his speech, you will hear him well, that he said even part of his gateway into his compound was affected, but he gave it out freely. That is one in all.
And within the EKE-Market, so many people that have a kind of property in that place, they have all consented because, as I said before, we’ve been locked out of business for years because Afikpo seems to be a terminal end in all business transactions. So when this place is open, it will no longer become a terminal end when it comes to business transactions rather, it will be a passage through which other businesses can be done.
And that is why we willingly consented to so many other things that will have affected us. However, federal governments on their own have also taken note of some of those things.
And in the design, they did it in a way that a lot of properties will not be affected.
I am privy to the design, and that is why I’m speaking the way I’m speaking. So it’s not going to be a lot of loss or so much loss to the good people of Afikpo but rather, if you weigh it, if you put it on a scale, the goodies that will come out of it are far much better than any bad thing that you would have thought that would come out of it”.