Governor Umo Eno has announced the termination of another road project awarded by the immediate past administration of Udom Emmanuel.

The Ndon Eyoh-Odio-Ikwe road project was awarded sometime in 2016 but has been abandoned by the contractor eight years after.

Responding to a question from a journalist who wanted to know why some contracts awarded by the previous administration have been completed while the Odio road project remains uncompleted, the governor said his administration has terminated four road contracts of which Odio road was one of them due to lack of capacity by contractor to execute the contract.

“We have so far terminated four contracts for road construction. When we came in, we did an appraisal of projects that were not completed by the previous administration and after critical evaluation, we terminated four contracts of which Odio road project is one of them. A new contract will be signed soon with another contractor”

The governor who was meeting with media practitioners as part of activities to mark his one year in office also spoke on the state government’s intention to exit a contract with a Chinese firm for the construction of an international market in the state.

“The proponents of the China international market were not very sincere in the contractual agreement with the state. They agreed a 30% for the state and 70% for themselves yet the 30% from the state is expected to build and complete the market for the Chinese firm”

The governor explained further that following the outbreak of COVID 19 the Chinese Nationals returned to China and have not returned to the state again.

“Until we exit the former agreement we cannot enter into a new one to avoid unnecessary litigation”.

On the revamp of Akwa Prime Hatchery in Uruan Local Government Area, the governor maintained that government has no business running a business venture.

“One of the mistakes is joining government into business. I am one of the proponents that government should not do business but rather create an enabling environment for private sector to thrive. We are ready to lease that place to any member of the public interested in the Hatchery. In this country, anything managed by government dies from the local to the federal government”.

On the food voucher programme, the governor announced that some people were being prosecuted for trying to defraud the state under the programme. He however reiterated his earlier stand that the programme was a mere intervention while the permanent solution is cultivation of our arable farmlands for food sufficiency.