Joe Effiong, Uyo

Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has expressed displeasure over roads constructed in local government areas in the state, saying they are not worth the huge amount voted for them in the yearly budgets.

Specifically, member representing Nsit Atai state constituency and Chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mark Esset, told the ministry of works to leave the roads in his local government since the ministry appears to have run out of ideas how to work on the dual carriage way.

Esset regretted most of the roads have started wearing off even within the lifespan of the administration.

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Commissioner for Works, Ephraim Inyang-Eyen, was in the House to defend his ministry’s budget for 2020 before the Finance and Appropriation Committee.

The committee is chaired by Uduak Odudo of Ikot Abasi state constituency, but Esset, a member of the committee, said he had gone on inspection across the 31 local government areas; “but sadly, most roads constructed by the government are in deplorable conditions.

Another member, Victor Ekwere said: “Awa-Ukam road commissioned barely two months on May 29, 2019, is now a total mess. I have been receiving calls and I have gone to check the road myself; indeed, it is a real mess.”

However, the commissioner blamed the poor condition of the Awa-Ukam road to emergency measures adopted in fixing the road during the recent vist of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, adding that the problem emanated from what he described as “intermittent construction of the road.”