The federal government reopened the First Niger Bridge to traffic 38 days after its closure on September 7 for emergency repairs and maintenance.
The federal government had scheduled the bridge connecting Onitsha in Anambra State to Asaba in Delta State to reopen on September 21, but announced an extension because weather constraints slowed the maintenance work.
Dave Umahi, the Minister of Works, declared the bridge reopened, saying President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to the south-east should be rewarded with a second term in 2027.
The former Ebonyi Governor said the necessary infrastructure has been fixed to ensure the free flow of traffic, adding that the rehabilitation works aimed to ease traffic and ensure the safety of road users.
He said, “We have every reason to thank the governors of Anambra and Delta states. We must commend the contractors, SKCC, very, very highly; they have worked very well.
“We are not 100 per cent done because we are going to do. The evidence of what we are doing today is a total testimony that President Bola Tinubu is indeed detribalised Nigeria.
“What other regions are getting, the people of South-South and South-East are getting it. And so why should we not appreciate the President?
“If the President, God forbid, were not the President in 2027, do you think that any of these people, marauding will have the capacity, the audacity, the courage, the wisdom, the pedigree to do this?
”For how many years, we had Enugu-Onitsha Road, nobody could pass it. Why was there no governor that intervened?
“We have no regret supporting President Bola Tinubu. Let me declare in opening this bridge that I have no regret supporting Mr President.
“I am very, very proud for him to be my boss. He is the most qualified and eminently qualified to lead this country.
“And so, by the power of Mr. President and in our deep appreciation of what he has done for the people of South-South and South-East in this bridge, it is my humble pleasure, and with gratitude to God Almighty, to open this bridge for the benefit of our people, in Jesus name.”