Poor Infrastructure: NGO Begs NDDC for Intervention as AKSG Abandons Eket

By Ime Ben

Worried by the pitiable and shameful conditions of Eket and its environs in terms of infrastructural development, a non governmental organization in the area, the Network Advancement Programme for Poverty and Disaster Risk Reduction (NAPPDRR), has appealed to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to come to the rescue of the area.

The NGO said since the State government seems to have abandoned the area in terms of key infrastructural development despite the contributions and support of the area to the emergence of the present administration, its only hope for urgent development of the area was on the intervention agency, NDDC.

The President of the organization, Al Mustapher Emem Edoho made the call yesterday while exchanging views with our correspondent at his office in Eket. Edoho said "it is so pathetic that Eket, being the hub of oil and gas producing companies in Akwa Ibom State in particular and the Niger Delta in general cannot boast of any motorable road  or any key infrastructure initiated by the present Akwa Ibom State government".

As we speak, all the major roads and streets in the area have completely collapsed and nothing is done about them. A sincere person can attest to the fact that there is no one good road or street in the area where one can drive safely in Eket. Places like Edem Udo street, Ekpene Ukpa Ave, Idua road, Park lane, Market road, Part road among other internal roads in the area are gradually becoming impassable and the State government and its Ministry of Works is doing nothing about fixing them".

Edoho, who frowned seriously at the deplorable conditions of the area said " with the huge quantum of oil and gas produced in the area which forms the greater percentage of revenue source to the State government and the country in general, Eket township roads deserve urgent attention by both the State government, NDDC and the Ministry of Niger Delta".

While commending the NDDC for its usual intervention in developing the region in general and the State in particular especially for its urgent intervention in the construction of the collapsed Hospital road in Abak LGA after years of alleged abandonment by the State government, including other key infrastructural development programmes put together by the Commission under the present Nsima Ekere's directorship, the NGO appealed to the Commission to also extend same intervention hands to the repairs of the collapsed roads in Eket, saying such development would be enough to speak for Ekere's development driven leadership qualities and love for his people thereby score him higher in future aspirations.

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