Aba-Ngwa people deny stopping reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road
The Aba-Ngwa people, the owners of Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State on Wednesday urged the residents of the city and the entire Igbo nation to disregard the rumours that they tried to prevent the reconstruction of the popular Port Harcourt Road through financial demands.
Our correspondent reports that the rumours that the Aba-Ngwa people tried to stop the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road and were tactically invited by Governor Alex Otti to come and collect the money in Umuahia, but were later arrested have been a household story in Aba for some days.
Through their cultural umbrella body, the Aba-Ngwa People’s Forum, the Aba-Ngwa people described the story which gained grounds all over the social media since last week as the highest level of absurdity and a decoy to abandon Port Harcourt Road which they described as the nucleus of Abia economy.
In a communique issued and signed by Comrade Chimezie Nwagba, President and Architect Chinedu Ahuruonye, Secretary of the Forum expressed disappointment and utter shock at what it termed sponsored rumour on Social Media that some indigenes of Aba Ngwa, whose identities the sponsors of the rumours have been unable to disclose, demanded money from the government of Abia State, as a precondition for the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road by Julius Berger.
The Forum declared that it views the rumour as cheap blackmail and aimed at abandoning the massive Port Harcourt Road project using the non-existing demand as an escape route and stressed that the ploy is dead on arrival.
In its resolution, the forum said, “We condemn the cheap blackmail orchestrated against us and curse all those behind it.
“We demand that the identities of those who were purportedly arrested be made public for proper scrutiny.
“We are disappointed that the Abia State government which is good at refuting many things is unable to refute this unfortunate absurdity simply because the Ngwa are involved.”
Going further, the Forum said, “We ask the government of Abia State to come clean and tell the world what is delaying the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road, Aba and desist from using us as decoys for unserious or snail-pace projects.
“As progressive-minded people, we will continue to support every effort at building and restoring Infrastructure in Aba, and can never be a cog in the wheel of development of Aba, our beautiful land and Abia State in general, knowing that we stand to benefit most when Aba roads are built because we have no other home than Aba.”
The Forum therefore called on all the residents of Aba to disregard the sponsored blackmail against the Aba-Ngwa people stressing that they are more eager to see their land fully developed than any other person.
“We equally use this medium to unequivocally call on the Abia State government to clear the air that this fake news never happened.
“We wonder how such a non-existing demand, made a few days ago has stopped the reconstruction of the road that was flagged off about three months ago.”
