The Honourable Commissioner for works, Engr Otumchere Oti kickstarted proceedings at the ceremony in Aba when he said that “…the new Aba-Port Harcourt Road is a total of 6.8km, and it is made up of 5.7km from the beginning of Port Harcourt Road by Ngwa road to the end of the intersection with the Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port Harcourt expressway by Alaoji, and another 1.1km from the intersection with Ngwa road to the junction of Azikiwe road by Asa road.”
His Excellency, Governor Alex Chioma Otti in his remarks at the event also said that the road which was first constructed by former Governor Sam Mbakwe has been in a state of disrepair and abandonment for over 20 years occasioning avoidable flood and other environmental problems and, consequently, shut down of businesses. He said, “I am glad that we are taking yet another strategic step in fulfilling one of my promises to break the jinx of Port Harcourt Road, Aba and revive the long abandoned economic activities along this corridor; activities that once gave Aba a set of peculiar commercial and trading advantages, starting from the early 1980s when our revered leader, Dee Sam Mbakwe, Governor of old Imo State constructed this road to feed into the booming oil industrial complex in Port Harcourt.” The Governor recalled with nostalgia that the road corridor in past decades emerged as one of the busiest parts of Aba and a go-to destination for people and businesses in Abia. He positively assured Aba residents and Abians in general that the years of abandonment of the important road are over.
