Super Highway: C’River, FG On Collision Course

The Cross River state government has threatened to use other constitutional options in the construction of the 260 kilometer Superhighway, if federal agencies fail to approve Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project.
Already, Cross River State government has given the federal authorities two weeks to release the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project failure of which it would go ahead with the execution of the superhighway which is one of the signature project.
The position was made at the weekend when some members of the state Executive Council briefed journalists over what they described as deliberate attempt to frustrate one of the state’s signature projects.
Addressing journalists on behalf of State Executive members, Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Elder John Inyang said that Cross River can no longer continue to play the good boy as it has become obvious that some detractors and enemies of the state were trying to thwart the effort of the Prof. Ben Ayade led administration.
He said: “Cross River state is being frustrated and surprisingly President Mohammadu Buhari is in support of our Projects but some federal agencies have continued to rigmarole and many have politicized the EIA”.
He also announced that the project design has been reviewed and the 10 kilometer spread on both sides of the road to 70 meters in the interest of the public and for the progress of the project.
Inyang insisted that they had met every requirement in the EIA based on the scope of the project and wondered why new items were introduced that were not stated in the template
that was earlier provided.
On her part, Commissioner for Climate Change, Mrs. Alice Ekwu also corroborated what her colleague had earlier stated.
According to her, “everything enlisted in the scope of work has been efficiently met, we have a government that is law abiding and the Superhighway is not even passing through the National Park, instead we are using the degraded area.
“We have to strike a balance between development and environment and right now the road is not passing through the forest, if we are further frustrated, we will look for other viable options
In his remarks, the State Commissioner for Finance, Asuquo Ekpeyong, said that Cross River state was losing billions of naira because a lot has already been invested into the project owing to the fact that it was a Public Private Partnership.
“Cross River state is losing commitment from investors because of the delay of the EIA, we have spent money in De-bushing, designs and so on the more we are delayed the money we lose money because the rainy season will soon set in.” he said.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar