FG yet to refund C/River N50bn federal roads repair

Governor of Cross River State Mr. Ben Ayade has lamented the refusal of the federal government to refund over N50 billion which the state government used in rehabilitating many federal roads in the state.

The governor stated this when he inspected the ongoing 15km rehabilitation of the Tinapa-Odukpani federal highway.

He said the state had earlier spent N25 billion adding that with ongoing rehabilitation the expenditure on road repairs on behalf of the federal government will rise beyond N50 billion.

“The government at the centre is not ready to make any refund and yet the road cannot be tolled. So this is absolutely a social service,” Ayade said.

According to him, “after years of pleading with the Federal government to give us the opportunity to reconstruct this road and for them to approve that they will refund the money, the federal government has insisted that if we have to do the road, it would be totally at the expense of the state as it was not ready to refund.”

Ayade said the number of deaths of motorists as man-hour loss by Cross River citizens along the road was an issue of concern to him, thus his decision to dualise the road.

Continuing, the governor explained, “as we speak today, Cross River has N25 billion in the hands of federal government from previous interventions, certified and approved for refund. We are in a situation where either you do it or your people die. We have taken a decision to do it at the cost that the state itself can’t even afford. So we are just working with the intellect to drive the process.”