Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
With the year 2019 fiscal year almost drawing to an end, the agency saddled with the maintenance of roads and other infrastructure in Akwa Ibom State may have a lot of questions to answer to Akwaibomites as to how they spent monies allocated to them in the approved 2019 state budget which clearly showed that they like some of their counterparts were not left out in the budget padding that has riddled the Land of Promise.
A thorough perusal of the approved 2019 State budget for the agency by SecretReporters revealed that N200,000,000 (Two Hundred Million Naira) was allocated for the painting of roundabouts, dividers, and kerbs in Uyo and environs with another N600,000,000 (Six hundred Million Naira) earmarked for the removal of sand debris on pavement and bridges and desilting of culverts.
Also according to the budget, an outrageous sum of N15,000,000 (Fifteen Million Naira) was approved to establish and maintain a functional website and data bank for the Agency which till now is non-existent and currently seen by many Akwa Ibomites as a clear means of plundering the state wealth.
Information also revealed that, the road maintenance and other infrastructure agency allocated the sum of N120,000,000 (One Hundred and Twenty Million Naira) for the Provision of 200meter Guard Rails at the pedestrian crossing on Edet-Akpan Road, Itam Junction, Ikot Ekpene Roundabout but there has been no visible sign of construction at any of the locations listed while N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira) was also approved for the purchase of 3 Hilux intended to be used as project vehicles as listed by the Agency.
Interestingly, N70,000,000 (Seventy Million Naira) was also approved for Repairs, Maintenance and Replacement of Road signs in Uyo, with another N70,000,000 (Seventy Million Naira), set aside for fixing Kilometer Post on roads linking Uyo, Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Oron, and Ikot Abasi.
Calls and SMS to the State Commissioner for Information, Charles Udoh to acertain if funds have been released by the State government and the level of excution of these projects proved abortive as at press time.
