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Abia State Governor Alex Otti says that one side of the Okpara Square -Ossah – Tower Six- Lane Road will be ready by this Yuletide.
Governor Otti stated this while inspecting the ongoing construction works on the road.
“I have been assured that at least one side would be ready for commuters to use during this Christmas,” he said on Thursday.
He expressed his assurance that with the dry season setting in, work will go on 24 hours on a daily basis to ensure that the work is delivered within the time frame.
The Governor explained that he was motivated to begin the expansion of the road to six lanes from the initial four lanes due to the congestion on the road, especially during festive seasons.
He said: “If you are familiar with this road, every festive season people get stuck. Expanding the road to six lanes would help traffic. We know what our people want. The essence of government is to deliver on what the people want and people are happy because we are actually speaking to their needs and that’s what government is about”.
“On a daily basis, we have more and more people who want to move out of Umuahia and Aba to bring their businesses back so we are forward thinking and forward looking so we are already planning for them as they relocate,” Otti added.
The State chief executive assured Abia people that many good things and development plans are in the offing for them.
“These are still early days. As time goes on, we are going to touch on different aspects of the needs of our people, that’s why we are here, to ensure that the welfare and security of our people are prioritized,” he said.
The Governor used the opportunity to apologise to those who have been inconvenienced by the expansion of the road, saying: “To those who have been inconvenienced by the restrictions of traffic on this road, we want to apologize to them and assure them it wouldn’t be too long before they begin to enjoy free flow of traffic.
“A lot of people’s houses were affected and we have already paid compensation to them. I understand there are a few more houses that got enumerated after the first compensations have been paid, we are looking at that to ensure that we also pay compensations before we bring down those houses”.
Governor Alex Otti, who was happy with the pace of work, thanked the Commissioner for Works and his team as well as the contractors for their efforts and stressed the need for people to be patient with the state government on the road, assuring further that it would be fully completed short time.
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