FG Stops Work On Cross River Superhighway

The Federal Ministry of Environment has ordered the stoppage of work on the proposed Cross River superhighway in line with environmental regulations.

The ministry, in a statement signed by it Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bukar Hassan, to address issues raised concerning the highway, said the Cross River State Government had registered for Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed superhighway project and that it was currently conducting the EIA studies, which were at an advanced stage.

“The Federal Ministry of Environment is in communication with Cross River State Government on the EIA process. The ministry issued an interim Environmental Impact Assessment approval for the ground-breaking, which enabled President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the project. This approval does not convey project commencement of implementation,” the statement read in part.

It added that concerns raised would be addressed in an open and transparent manner, and urged the project’s host communities and other stakeholders to ensure continued peaceful dialogue.

The reaction is coming on the heels of protests by the people of Ekuri in Cross River State, over the proposed Calabar-Okwotung/Obudu/Yara dual carriageway by the state government.

The Ekuri people noted that their rainforests, described as spectacular and home to a number of rare and endangered wildlife species, including the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, some of the last forest elephants in West Africa and forest buffalo, would disappear forever due to the construction of the superhighway.

They also contended that the project would destroy the ancestral land and forests of the Ekuri people and thousands of others along the 260km route.

The protesters noted that they had relied completely on their ancestral land and forests for everything, as they provided the people with fruits, vegetables and a wide range of other valuable forest products as well as fertile farmland, which shape their unique culture, language and identity.

“These forests are so important to the Ekuri people that in the early 1990s when they were approached by two logging companies offering to build them a road in exchange for logging their forest, they said no,” the protesters noted in a statement made available to our correspondent.

The Ekuri people and concerned stakeholders had called on the Federal Government to suspend immediately all forest logging and clearance already commenced without an EIA permit from the Federal Ministry of Environment, and rescind the related revocation of the community land along the highway’s Right of Way.

They also asked the Federal Government to examine all alternative routes for the superhighway to avoid the destruction of the Ekuri community forests and other forested parts of Cross River State as well as carry out a thoroughly participatory and transparent review of the ecological, socio-cultural, economic, financial and reputational impacts of the project.