Residents of Mbiakong Uruan community in Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom State risk their lives on a wooden bridge that is near collapse despite the sum of N863.7 billion spent by the state government in three years as capital expenditure.
Akwa-Ibom Online that exposed the dilapidated nature of the bridge, says community residents who are crying out for help from the government disclosed that it links many communities in the area.
This is even as Mr. Udom Emmanuel, the Akwa Ibom State Governor, in 2019, presented an annual budget that got N447.9 billion capital expenditure. Also, in the year 2020, the state got N369.642 billion approval for capital expenditure and N226.964 billion capital expenditure in 2021.
Worse still, a visit to the Akwa – Ibom website shows the state had expended the sum of N3 billion on Rural Development in two years, of which N1.963 billion was approved in 2019 and N1.7 billion in 2020.
Despite the huge amount of money the Akwa-Ibom state claims to have spent in developing the state, the Mbiakong Uruan community suffers grave insufficient infrastructures with the residents appealing to the government for assistance.
The amount interrogated in this report covers only three years period, however, the Akwa – Ibom state government in the last two decades had approved huge sums of money in her respective annual budgets that have not translated into the development of state and providing local infrastructures.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Akwa-Ibom state government for a response.
Breakdown of the three-year capital expenditure by the state.
| S/N | Year | Capital Expenditure Amount |
| 1 | 2019 | N447.9 billion |
| 2 | 2020 | N188.942 billion |
| 3 | 2021 | N226.964 billion |
|
|
Total For Three Years
|
N863.7 |
Source: Akwa-Ibom State Website