The Government of Akwa Ibom State has attacked former Governor, Godswill Akpabio over the alleged lacklustre approach to the development of the Ibom Deep Seaport.
Udom Emmanuel’s government said Akpabio only acquired land and never carried out any substantial development of the multi-billion dollars project in Mbo Local Government Council of the state.
This was stated by the State Commissioner for Lands and Town Planning, Mr. Ime Ekpo yesterday.
He said the project only received proper attention when Governor Emmanuel took over governance.
According to him, “Apart from acquiring land, no other thing was done on the project. It is under the present administration that consultants were appointed to prepare the master plans and before such plans are prepared in an area of 14,500 hectares, one needs the topography survey which was never done.”
He further thanked the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government for attaching importance to the project.
He added, ‘’As we speak, the Tin Can Island and Apapa Ports are totally congested. It takes an average of 42 days for a trailer to go in and come out. This slows down the entire economy. Ours is the most preferred at the moment because it doesn’t require much dredging.”
Ekpo added that Emmanuel had put in place a free trade zone to complement the proposed deep sea port.
