The Federal Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has said the rumour that the Federal Government had stopped funding of federal roads in the South East region of the country has no iota of truth.  

Umahi made this declaration while inspecting the ongoing rehabilitation of the Ututu-Isuikwuto-Akara road in Abia on Friday. 

• In his words, “Let me clarify very mischievous information that Vanguard carried that Federal Government has stopped funding of federal roads in South East. 

• “I was expecting Director, Media to react to that or Director, Highway  South East to react to that. 
• “There is no iota of truth in that.” 

The minister, however, disclosed that only the additional construction projects in the region, comprising four bridges and an extra 3KM road construction, amounting to N50 billion, were temporarily paused due to paucity of funds. Umahi promised that those projects would be reviewed by the ministry to ascertain why the costs of the projects were that high and work out alternative designs to cut down costs. 

Projects supervised by Minister Umahi in his inspection tour 

Umahi’s inspection tour of the ongoing road rehabilitation projects in the Southeast region includes the Ututu-Isuikwuto-Akara road in Abia State and the Amanwozuzu-Uzoagba-Eziama-Orie-Amakohia road in Imo State.  

• Commenting on the progress of the Ututu-Isuikwuto-Akara road, the minister noted that 1.5 km of the total 23.7 km has been completed so far. He applauded the contractor for the progress, saying, “I think he has done well considering that only N200 million was paid to him out of a total contract sum of N19.624 billion.” 

Umahi also paid a visit to the site of the ongoing construction of the Ikot-EkpeneBorder Aba-Owerri dualization road in Akwa Ibom/ Imo States on Friday.