Traders of Ariaria International Market, Aba, Abia State have commended Governor Theodore Orji on the on-going road construction projects in the market.
A cross section of traders who spoke to Pointblanknews.com described the governor as a promise keeper stressing that the ongoing rehabilitation work in the market will help to boost trading in the market.
A trader at Ariaria “Free Zone” section, Mrs Kelechi Awa said that, the rehabilitation of the zone has helped to improve trade in the area and reduce the stress they faced when the road was still in a bad state.
As at the time our correspondent visited the Timber Line area of the market; construction of gutters at both sides of the road was nearing completion while the A line road is waiting to be asphalted.
Another trader, Mr. Steve Nwangwu, at the timber line called on the governor to ensure that the contractors handling the projects use solid materials to do their work in order to avoid wastage of resources.
He was optimistic that the road when completed will help to bring back some of their customers who had ran away from patronizing them because of the deplorable condition of the road to the timber market section.
The governor has really done well by building this road. He should make sure that the contractors use quality materials to do the job. If not, the rains will wash them away during the next rainy season and thereby wasting money used to execute this project.
Other traders at the line section, called on the contractor handling road construction work in the line to expedite actions in order to finish the road project before the rains starts.
He further said that, trade has really improved drastically since the road construction started and thanked the ASMATA chairman, Chief Francis Ezeduru for drawing the attention of the state government to the challenges traders are facing in the market.
Speaking on behalf of the ASMATA Chairman, a member of the Reactivation and Management of Ariaria International Market, Chief Chidi Agbawo described good road network as the fulcrum of economic activities in the market, stressing that the ongoing road rehabilitation works in the market points to the commitment of Abia State government to give the market a facelift and also to make it a true international market to reckon with.
Recently the governor gave us N100 million as advance to the contractors for this project. It is the governor that is doing the work, but we are supervising it. Last two weeks, we asphalted Free Zone and Free Zone road. We asphalted two roads last week. The line would be asphalted in two weeks coming, he said