Joe Effiong, Uyo

Akwa Ibom State says that it has no obligation ploughing back the money refunded to it by the Federal Government for constructing federal roads in its domain to construct other federal roads.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Ita Enang, has told the Akwa Ibom State government to reinvest the N78 billion reportedly refunded to the state by the Federal Government for federal roads constructed by the previous state administration to reconstruct the dilapidated Calabar-Itu Road.

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Finance, Mr Linus Nkan, however, has told Enang to complete the Calabar-Itu Road, claiming the full amount for its reconstruction had since been released based on what Enang had said before the February-March general elections.

Though the Commissioner refused to mention the actual amount the Federal Government has refunded to the state, he did indicate that the amount was far below the N78 billion often declared by Enang, stressing that the amount refunded was already in the public domain.

Related News

“Instead of him going about making wild statements, he should make sure that the said Calabar-Itu Road is completed soon because I believe the whole amount for the job must have been released to him. That is what he had been telling the entire state. Or was it just an election scam?”

“The amount we got was far less than what was approved to be released to us, which was signed even before Jonathan left office. We have a lot to do with the money in the state and not to go and plough it back in the rehabilitating a federal road which we believe money had since been released to federal appointees in the state, and they are now trying to cover it up,” Nkan claimed.

He said the state expects to increase its internally generated revenue to a N100 billion, almost double the budgeted N55 billion, as industries so far established would begin to pay by taxes to boost the state’s resources.

Encouraging indigenes of the state to support the Udom Emmanuel administration and prime themselves to take up management positions in industries on the ground, the Finance Commissioner added that the state would continue to invest in agriculture in order to reduce the cost of feeding as well as create jobs for the teeming population of young people.