Udom, Enang In Face-off Over Calabar-Itu Road Repair

The controversy trailing Calabar-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road took a new dimension as Governor Udom Emmanuel told the Senior Special Adviser to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang, not to pry into the affairs of the state.

Enang had in an interview some weeks ago asked the state government to use the N78bn refund on rehabilitation of the Calabar-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road project.

Reacting to Enang’s comment on Friday, the Commissioner for Finance, Linus Nkan, said the Federal Government should tell the people the truth about the road.

Nkan said the state government was of the view that the contract was only awarded for political reasons.

The commissioner, who declared as false, Enang’s claim of N78bn as the amount refunded, said Enang was not “sincere to his people and should not be taken seriously.”

“It is true that Akwa Ibom State  got a refund, but what is not true is the amount declared by Ita Enang.

“What (President Goodluck) Jonathan signed and approved was far higher than what we got. The Federal Government merely refunded the money it owed the state and did not have to tell us what to use the money for because every state has its priority. Ita Enang does not have such right. He is not an adviser to the governor.

“Is it not the same road that Enang brought contractors with equipment to tell us that the Federal Government had awarded the road for 55bn? We are even tempted to say he has collected that money. There is something he is trying to hide.

Reacting, Enang said, “I stand by my word that it is N78.2bn they have collected. That was what was approved by the National Assembly and the Federal Executive Council meeting and given to them.”

Reacting to the comments that he does not have a right to direct the state government on how to utilise it resources, Enang said, “I was just appealing to them that the Calabar-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road is the biggest problem and that they should see the need to plough back the resources to the road because the money that was refunded was 16 years investigation of both former governors Victor Attah and Godswill Akpabio.”

Credit: Punch Newspaper