Abia Coalition For Justice and Equity Query’s Deputy Speaker Over ₦2.7 Amaokwe–Akanu Item Road

Recent independent verifications—sparked by the patriotic insistence of Hon. Iheanyi Frank Chinasa—have pulled the veil off several projects linked to the Deputy Speaker. The findings are as disturbing as they are revealing. From the Umuimenyi/Nkpa ecological road to the Umuahia–Bende–Ohafia road, projects loudly advertised as completed or ongoing are, in reality, either in ruins, badly executed, or nonexistent.

One glaring project among them is the much-touted construction of the 3.5km Amaokwe–Akanu Item Road celebrated by Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu as one of his many “projects” for Bende Federal Constituency—is nothing short of a troubling illusion. It raises a painful but necessary question: Where is the transparency, the accountability, and the respect for the trust Ndi Bende reposed in their representative?

Sadly, the Amaokwe–Akanu Item road fits perfectly into this pattern of failed promises.

This road is not a luxury. It is a lifeline connecting the communities of Amaokwe, Akanu, and Okai; linking Item to Akaeze in Ebonyi State; and serving as the primary route for transporting produce from the richly agrarian Okai Item. A road of such socioeconomic importance should be a pride of the constituency. Instead, it now stands as a symbol of abandonment.

Even more troubling are the facts surrounding its funding.
In the 2024 appropriation, the project appeared as:
“Rehabilitation of Methodist Roundabout, Amaokwe Item to Akanu Item” – ₦200,000,000.

In the 2025 appropriation, it returned with even bigger funding:
“Asphalt Tarring of Amaokwe–Akanu Item Road Lot 1–5” – ₦2,500,000,000.

That is a staggering ₦2.7 billion approved within two fiscal years for a road that today remains worse than it was before 2024.

And what is the only visible evidence that government even touched this project?
A lonely billboard announcing the “construction of 4km Amaokwe–Akanu Item road and drainage” by Sunray Energy Limited.

No machines.
No workers.
No progress.
Just a billboard.

So the questions every concerned constituent must ask are simple:

* Where are the contractors?
* What happened to the ₦2.7 billion allocated for this road?
* Why is the Deputy Speaker taking credit for a project that has not been executed?
* Why is Bende littered with budget lines but starved of actual development?

If, as he often preaches, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu is connecting Abia to the centre under the banner of “renewed hope,” then Bende should be the clearest evidence of what that connection means. Instead, Bende has become an example of the widening gap between what is announced in Abuja and what is delivered at home.

This is not about politics.
This is about accountability.
This is about the future of communities whose livelihoods depend on the promises written in Nigeria’s budgets—but lost between paperwork and reality.

Ndi Bende deserves answers.
More importantly, Ndi Bende deserves the projects already paid for in their name.