Vitalis Ugoh: Worried by the delay in giving approval to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the commencement of his signature projects, the state governor Prof. Ben Ayade, has accused the Federal Government of deliberately frustrating his developmental agenda in Cross River State.
Ayade who spoke through some of his Commissioners said the ambition of his administration is to construct a 260k Superhighway from Calabar -. Obudu and a Deep-sea-port at Bakassi as well as the garment factory. According to him “this vision is being frustrated by the inability of the relevant Federal ministries in giving approvals to the (EIA) as it were for well over nine months now”
This ugly development has made it impossible for foreign investors like Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Railway and Engineering construction among other to come to the state. Ayade regretted that some investors had shown interest in the signature projects were afraid because there is no backing from the Federal government. Some of them had threatened to back out if approval for the (EIA) is not giving within the next two to three weeks, he declared.
According to him, “despite conceding to the demands of some of the stakeholders especially some of the foreign NGOs in making a U-turn of the 10km revocation order from both sides of the highway that was taken for developmental purposes,the Federal Ministry of Environment is still adamant in giving approvals to these projects”. He warned that “if after two weeks, approvals are not giving for (EIA), the state will invoke the relevant sections of the Nigeria Constitution by going ahead with the project as planned without any recourse to the Federal Government”.
Ayade who howeverr commended President Mohammadu Buhari for his interest in seeing that his signature projects were actualized lamented that some Federal Agencies were out to frustrate the good intention of Mr. President. He said that the state government had put a lot of things on ground to ensure that these signature projects succeeds.
“The Superhighway, the deep sea port and the garment factory were meant to attract development in the start. We need this approval to enable our foreign partners to come in as soon as possible now that we are in the dry season, Ayade added”.
Efforts have been put in place to ensure that we meet Federal government and other international stakeholders standards, “and yet we have not received the EIA approval”. He spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Orientation Rosemary Archibong, Commissioner for Finance, Asuquo Ekpenyong, Commissioner for Lands, John Inyang, Commissioner for Climate Change, Alice Ekwu, and Commissioner for Water Resources Gabriel Oji.
