This is one of the discoveries by a team of online publishers drawn from the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) that was on a guided tour of the project on Thursday, May 11. The over 100 kilometres of road that stretches from Calabar in Cross River State to Itu in Akwa-Ibom State, the publishers gathered, has been a victim of neglect by successive governments for over 20 years, according to a motorist, interviewed on the state of the road.The motorist, who pleaded anonymity, expressed regret that the road, which has attracted budgetary approvals for repairs by four successive administrations, has remained unattended to. He said the first budget to fix the road was passed during the former President Olusegun Obasanjo regime. “But it was unattended to in spite of the budget”, he revealed.
He added that: “When nothing came out of the Obasanjo regime’s budget proposal, the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration came and also captured it in one of their annual budgets. This also did not achieve anything. “This ritual moved to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. President Buhari included the road in two annual budgets during his first term in office between 2015 1nd 2019; but no work was done. “The same administration”, he revealed, “captured the road in the budgets of 2020, 2021, and 2023. This is 2023, you can see that the road is still a nightmare for motorists”.