RESPITE AS GOV. EMMANUEL SET TO COMPLETE UYO-IKOT EKPENE Highway... By Henshaw Nyong in Ikot Ekpene.

Hope is rising for residents, businesses and motorists on the 25km Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Highway, as some recalcitrant property owners who sued the State government on compensation issues, have revoked their earlier decision.
Recall that a good number of court cases bothering on compensation issues by different property owners on the road, awarded by the immediate-past administration, occasioned the delay in its completion.

Speaking with newsmen after inspecting the road on Monday, Commissioner for Works, Akwa Ibom State, Mr Ephraim Inyang -Eyen, insisted he visited the road to prove cynics wrong, who spread falsehood that the road was abandoned.
He however, assured of Governor Emmanuel's readiness to complete the ongoing construction of the 25km Uyo-Ikot Ekpene dual carriage road pr

oject.
He asked rhetorically: "How can we (Governor Emmanuel administration) abandon a project which government has sank so much money into it?"
Continuing, the Works boss said: "I'm here to prove cynics wrong. Like I have said repeatedly, His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel, has no plan to abandon any project that had been started by previous government.

" How can we abandon Uyo Ikot Ekpene, when we need this road, same with 4 point By Shearaton. What happened on this road was not that the project was abandoned. We had issues on how compensation payments were handled. Through valuers, there were mix-ups and we needed to sort them out"
Mr Inyang-Eyen who hinted that compensations have been paid to property owners on the road, announced that the state government has mapped out strategy that would ensure money is paid to affected people in an asynchronous manner.
Stressing that Mr Udom Emmanuel is not known for politicizing development, the Commissioner maintained that no project instituted with Akwa Ibom money by the previous administrations would be abandoned.

"What Governor Udom Emmanuel is doing is to re-establish what previous government started. Because the money that have been put in there is Akwa Ibom money, so we must give our people value and His Excellency cannot and will never any abandon project", he said.
Ephraim Inyang-Eyen said, by December this year, the people of Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, would be celebrating the yuletide "on a different kind of road and environment".
The Works Commissioner used the occasion to solicit support and massive cooperation to the Udom Emmanuel led administration to deliver more dividends of democracy to the entire people of the State.
Meanwhile, the 25km Uyo-Ikot Ekpene dual carriage way is handled by the construction giant; Julius Berger.