President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to visit Abia on October 3 to inaugurate several projects, including the reconstructed Port Harcourt Road in Aba, among others, Governor Alex Otti announced on Friday in Umuahia.

The governor, who spoke during the September edition of his monthly media chat entitled ‘Governor Alex Otti speaks to Abia people’, encouraged Abia people to come out en masse to receive the president.

The governor stated that his administration would soon commence the reconstruction of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road, adding that he had decided to embark on infrastructural projects due to their importance to the state’s development.

Mr Otti said that work had progressed on Abia Airport’s runways because the state government decided to handle it.

He, however, regretted that some landowners had not been paid, either due to the contractor’s mistake or the landowners’ inability to complete their documentation, leading to protests by some.

The governor stated that the contractor’s encroachment on the Nsulu indigenes’ land outside the designated land area had been rectified and promised that the other challenges would be addressed soon.

He said that his government would, in a few weeks, start engaging and deploying security personnel to protect state schools from vandalism, which is alleged to be perpetrated by suspected hoodlums.

On the issue of Nnamdi Kanu, Mr Otti stated that the state government has been engaging with federal authorities to ensure his release.

He said that some of the discussions on his incarceration, which all the South-East governors are part of, were not in the public domain to ensure the process gets the desired result.

Mr Otti explained that the state government ceased to invest in markets because the constitution has handed market management to local governments, and the state cannot interfere.

He said that, although the Abia government was reconstructing Ekeoha and Ariaria markets, noting that despite these investments, the markets are primarily owned by local governments.

On agriculture, Mr Otti said that Abia would invest more in growing rice, with the aim of becoming one of the highest producers in Nigeria, having recorded a high yield of 5 tonnes per hectare in the Owerrinta Rice pilot project.

He further stated that the state was undergoing massive rehabilitation of Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, with the appointment of a new rector and board chairman.

He said that ASCETA was central to his reforms in the education subsector, being the only surviving state-owned college of education in Abia.

Mr Otti noted that he was renovating and expanding Aba prisons to reduce congestion and ensure they are transformed into a reformation centre, rather than a punishment centre.

(NAN)