UMAHI NAMES FLYOVER AFTER RETIRED BISHOP, INAUGURATES OTHER ROADS

REPORTER: AMECHI ODO

Ebonyi State Government has opened a newly constructed flyover bridge, named after the immediate past Catholic Bishop of Abakaliki Diocese, the Most Rev. Michael Nnachi Okoro for public use.

The 26.5 span flyover, second longest in the State, after the Iyere bridge, is located at the vulnerable Hausa Quarters Junction, on the Abakaliki – Afikpo highway.

At the inuaugration of the project, Governor Umahi extolled the Bishop’s character and his invaluable contributions to peace and development of the state.

“We have so many reasons to remember you, and those are the reasons we are immortalizing you

“You have worked so hard for the development of Christianity, not just in Ebonyi State but in the entire Igbo land.

Governor Umahi condemned insinuations that his administration embarked on white elephant projects, stressing that the safety of all Ebonyi people was of utmost priority to his administration.

“Some people said we are building white elephant projects.

“That can only be said in Ebonyi State, but outside the State, Ebonyi is the epitome of what the Nigeria nation deserves,” he boasted.

Governor Umahi also named the dualised road from the flyover to the Camp David Estate, Centenary City, Abakaliki after the Bishop.

The State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Ogbonnaya Abara, in a remark regretted huge loss of lives hitherto recorded at the junction, and commended Governor Umahi for remedying the ugly situation through the flyover.

According to Mr Abara, the junction had on one occasion, in the past, recorded a single road crash which claimed more than 40 lives.

Other projects inaugrated were the 18km Okposi Umuoghara – Ebiaji – Achiagu road in Ezza North Local Government Area and the Divine Mandate twin road leading to the Ecumenical Centre and the Shopping Mall on one side and from Muhammadu Buhari light tunnel to Chi Boy bustop on the other side.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU