Akpan Umoh
The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. John Akpanudoedehe, on Monday lamented the poor state of Itu-Calabar highway, saying that commuters are facing distressing conditions travelling on the road.
Speaking with journalists in Uyo after horrendous journey from Calabar, Akpanudoedehe assured travellers that the Federal Government was doing everything possible to fix the highway, though it is challenged by paucity of funds.
He said: “I was on that road for eight hours. I told people that I am coming to Akwa Ibom, people went and crowded the airport during the COVID-19; so to avoid breaking COVID-19 protocol, I used Calabar highway and ended up on that road for about eight hours.
“Recently the Obong of Calabar and his council went and met with the President and spoke about the road. From our end, we are doing personal consultation and pleading with the President for that road.
“Every honest person will not shy away from admitting that the road is deplorable. The decay of infrastructure all over Nigeria is known, but we have paucity of funds.
“When APC came in, oil price dropped; we had economic recession and then the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would have loved Calabar-Itu highway to be dualised, I would have loved it to be in perfect shape, but in democracy there are so many forces competing for attention,” he said.
It could be recalled that the federal government awarded contract for the dualization of a section of the Calabar-Itu road in 2018; commencement of the job has staggered since then. Today, the road has become a death trap for many Nigerians.
On the 2023 general elections, Akpanudoedehe said the APC had since undertaken a rebuilding process and would get its axe right for the exercise.
He said that with the recent reconciliation drive towards entrenching best practices for effective opposition the party has repositioned itself for 2023.
The APC national scribe warned against perceived interests for crisis within the APC in Akwa Ibom, assuring that there was no problem in APC in the state.
“There is no crisis in Akwa Ibom APC; we are united because we recently had a reconciliation meeting and we all have accepted the need for peace in our party, except you were not at the reconciliation meeting,” he said.
He commended the Akwa Ibom Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by Comrade Amos Etuk, for also offering the platform for the opposition to ventilate its views on leadership.
He explained that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state may not be the desired El-dorado for the common good of the people.
He said, “Any government in power will not forget the media because without the media, there will not have been any democracy in the world.”