Umahi disclosed on Wednesday while declaring open the stakeholder’s engagement on the alignment for Ebonyi’s 101km segment of the super highway.
He said that the highways would transverse Cross River, Ebonyi, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa to Abuja, and would economically revolutionalise Ebonyi and the interconnecting states.
The minister said that the road was an agricultural and economic corridor that would support President Bola Tinubu’s drive for food sufficiency in the country.
“The highway will be an agricultural and economically viable route that would enable Ebonyi for instance, to evacuate farm produce such as rice, yams, and potatoes to other states of the country.
“These farm produce are found in large quantities in such routes but cannot be evacuated due to poor road network.
“The road is a spur of the coastal highway that runs from Lagos to Calabar and was designed by the colonial masters to integrate the Southeast states,” he said.
He called for support from all stakeholders to actualise the project noting that President Tinubu placed great emphasis on the infrastructural revolution of the country.
“Nigeria is currently suffering from the effects of past neglects and this informed the bold, revolutionary decisions of the president.
“There is no part of the southeast zone that is not touched on road revolution: Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt road, Enugu—Abakaliki road, Onitsha-Owerri-Aba roads, among others,” he said.
Umahi allayed fears of compensation for people to be affected during the super highway construction and commended Gov. Francis Nwifuru for compensating those affected on the dualisation of the Enugu–Abakaliki highway.
“We emphasize quality jobs which made us send all directors of the ministry to field, to supervise contractors,” he said.
Gov. Francis Nwifuru in his remarks expressed delight over the project and commended Unahi for his untiring efforts to infrastructurally develop the state.
“You laid an irreversible foundation for the state’s infrastructural development and this sustenance conforms with our administration’s people’s charter of needs mantra.
“This mantra is anchored on human capital development and infrastructural development and we have recorded significant strides in these areas since assuming office,” he said.
He assured of the state government’s support to ensure the realisation of the project due to its economic and social benefits to its people.
Sen. Onyekachi Nwebonyi (APC–Ebonyi North) described the project as a ‘dream come true’, noting that his constituents had been yearning for the project.
“I remember as a child, seeing my father and surveyors from the Ministry of works in the old Anambra, surveying the road on the axis connecting my community and Benue.
“That was why barely three months at the Senate, I relayed to the federal ministry of works that the road was opened in 1954 by the colonial masters and was of utmost importance to my people,” he said.
About 100 makeshift and illegal shops were also demolished at Traffic Light Nnewi, in line with the Operation Zero Shanties introduced by the Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration.
