C/River communities reject superhighway

The pet project of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, the 260km super-highway, may have been dealt another blow as communities within which the highway will pass have vowed not to allow it. Mr President commissioned the groundbreaking ceremony of the highway few months ago. However, few months after, the governor had mobilised bulldozers to […]

The pet project of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, the 260km super-highway, may have been dealt another blow as communities within which the highway will pass have vowed not to allow it.
Mr President commissioned the groundbreaking ceremony of the highway few months ago.
However, few months after, the governor had mobilised bulldozers to site for the commencement of the project while the EIA process had not been completed.
The superhighway is to stretch from Bakassi to boundaries of Benue State in the North Central zone.
Daily Trust  findings confirmed that government has begun to clear portions of the forests where the road is supposed to pass through. No major contractors have been signed on and no serious earth works are yet going on.
Recall that the Federal Ministry of Environment, National Park and international agencies, including the British Council had seriously cautioned the Ayade government in writing against proceeding with the project because of innumerable dangers. They had feared that the construction would not only destroy the vast forests and the National Park which is situated along the proposed superhighway corridors but that it must first obtain environmental impact assessment from relevant agency.
But Old and New Ekuri communities in the state fear that the government revocation of their land for the super highway would negatively affect them.
The vehement protest has therefore put the $3.5 billion super highway project into jeopardy.  Yet as it looks, the state might not meet the first two years during which President Buhari charged the state government to complete major works on 70 per cent of the road.
Carrying placards, banners and fresh palm fronds, over 500 people from the two communities comprising men and women, boys and girls took to the dusty streets calling on the state government to halt the project.
Some of the placards read, "Even chimpanzees cry out’, ‘Ayade don’t take our forests’, ‘Our forests are our garden of Eden, Governor Ayade don’t destroy them’, ‘Governor Ayade superhighway is a land grab in disguise’, ‘We are  the indigenous people of Ekuri and we say no’ and ‘The revocation of our forest is an abuse of social and economic right’.
The village head of Old and New Ekuri communities, Chief Stephen Oje Abel Egbe, said the construction of the superhighway was a welcome development but that it would rather bring destruction to his people and the environment.
"We need roads that will help us evacuate our farm product; we need schools, water, electricity and others and not the kind of road that will come and take our forests away," he said.