Governors and leaders of the South East have expressed their disappointment over the continued abandonment of the dilapidated Eastern Corridor of the railway passing from Port Harcourt through major parts of the zone to the North Central and North Eastern parts of the country.
The development was part of the outcome of the expanded South-East Governors Forum virtual meeting held on Sunday.
The Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, who disclosed this to newsmen in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, at the end of the meeting, said the forum discovered that there was no real funding available for the project from the Federal Government.
The leaders, therefore, agreed to collaborate with governors of the South South, North Central and North East to dialogue with the Federal Government about the project, which, according to them, was an already existing railway line.
The forum however commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the continued funding and work in progress on the Second Niger Bridge and Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Umahi informed that the forum was told that the bridge would be completed and handed over by July 2022 with its adjoining 44km road, while the Enugu Airport renovation would be completed and opened by August 30, 2020 as earlier announced by the Minister of Aviation, Hardi Sirika.
On the gas pipeline project of the Federal Government, which the forum said it discovered to be private sector driven, the leaders agreed to engage with the Federal Government and the contractor to ensure that the South East and South South were beneficially integrated in the programme.
Umahi noted that the leaders insisted that there was no way the pipeline would take off from the zone without stepping it down for the zone’s general benefit.
In its economic deliberation for the zone, the Governor informed that the forum has to set up a 54-member Committee on the Alaigbo Stabilization Fund, an economic consolidation programme of the zone.
According to him, the Committee was to come up with the programmes and procedures for the success of the fund and report back to the forum within the next six weeks for review and take off.
Umahi explained: “We discussed about the Eastern Corridor, which is the railway passing from Port Harcourt through South East to the North Central and North East,
“We discovered that there is no real funding available for this programme, and we agreed to collaborate with governors of South South, North Central and North East to dialogue with the Federal Government about this project,
“The railway lines are already in existence.
“It is to repair them, the terminals and rebuild some of them that have collapsed.”
Participants in the virtual meeting as disclosed by the Governor were National Assembly members; Governors of Enugu and Abia States; Deputy Governor of Anambra State; Senators Ike Ekweremadu, Enyinnaya Abaribe and Toby Okechukwu; President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; and Chairman of the South East Traditional rulers Council, among others.
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