Confirmed sources in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital have informed www.calitown.com that the Federal Government has completed plans to fix the Calabar-Oban-Ekang road in Cross River State. The road which links the state to Cameroun, has been in a nightmarish state of disrepair, causing commuters to spend endless hours on a journey that should ordinarily not last for me than two hours.
We were further informed that the rehabilitation of the 60km road has been awarded to Messrs Setraco Nigeria Limited for a contract sum of N27,781,851,866.55 (Twenty seven billion, seven hundred and eighty one million, eight hundred and fifty one thousand, eight hundred and sixty six naira, fifty five kobo) with a completion date of 24 months.
While we were additionally informed that the Federal Exexutive Council, FEC, has approved this contract, not many people who constantly ply this road are enthusiastic about this development. At the Milicent Filling Station on MCC Road, Calabar, where a mini park dedicated to commuter services on this road is located, commuters spoken to by www.calitown.com, expressed doubts about government’s sincere commitment to fixing the road. One Mike Ntui, a commuter, said “the promise to fix this road and the finances involved, we always hear, but we never get to see government actually fix this road and take all of our sufferings away.”
“Only Four Runner jeeps can ply this road. You can see how we come to Calabar in alternate days to buy supplies, if we don’t stock up now that the rains are here, when the rains intensify, we will have no food and supplies and we will suffer just because our government has forgotten us and this road. We can only celebrate this news item when we see Setraco seriously on site”, Edet Essien, another commuter said.