Cleric urges Cross River government to pay compensation to land owners in superhighway, deepsea port projects
A community leader in Obung Town, Old Netim Clan, Akamkpa local government area of Cross River State, one of the vicinities affected by construction of Cross River-Super Highway has called on Governor Bassey Otu to facilitate payment of compensation for crops and farms destroyed in the yet to be fully implemented project to resettle or relocate those affected.
Pastor Celestine Mbey made the disclosure while fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar on Monday August 5, 2024.
Recently the federal government gave 23 conditions to the state government before the commencement of the Super Highway project envisioned by Prof. Ben Ayade one of which was to compensate persons whose properties have been destroyed from the initial phase of the Super highway construction.
The Federal Ministry of Environment has since issued an unprecedented provisional Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with 23 conditions the state government must meet to proceed with construction of the proposed N200 billion 275km Superhighway, though previously budgeted at N800 billion with a shorter length 260km. But no valuation has been done before the destruction of properties and farms. The EIA presented by the Cross River Government would only affect 95 communities in Bakassi being a seaport project to take off from Calabar. The superhighway is expected to evacuate cargos from the proposed Calabar/Bakassi deep sea-port to the Central and Northern parts of Nigeria as well as Chad and Nigeria republics.
Findings has revealed that not only would 95 communities and 825 persons, 139 homes and Houses/properties, including 50 farms will be impacted throughout the entire 275km super highway with a projection of N700million to compensate and resettle beneficiaries but a vast majority are not enumerated. He argued that houses and properties plus farmlands had been omitted in the earlier arrangement by Governor Ayade in November, 2015.
Recall that during Otu’s visit to Egypt for a workshop, he stopped over at the Cairo headquarters of Afrexibank bank to seek partnership to finance some key infrastructural projects initiated by the previous administration of Prof. Ben. Ayade.
One of the highlights of the engagement was the signing of project preparation facility agreement with African Export-Import Bank (Afrexibank) worth N3.5 billion for two major infrastructural projects in Cross River State namely, Bakassi Deep Seaport and 217km Superhighway projects.
By: Archibong Emmanuel.
(Snr. Reporter)