‘We will make Calabar Clean again,’ Gov. Otu assures Cross Riveriens

Newly inaugurated Cross River State Governor, Sen. Prince Bassey Otu has assured residents of Calabar, the state capital, that the city would soon regain its clean and sparkling status again under his administration.

The Governor gave the assurance on Thursday June 1, after personally inspecting a dump site located along Lemna Road in the state Capital.

Recall that during the administration of Donald Duke, Calabar was consistently adjudged the cleanest city in Nigeria and a tourist destination.

In his comments, Governor Otu said he was ready to tackle the environmental challenges that has plagued Calabar and restore its past glory as Nigeria’s cleanest state capital.

His words “I decided to come to the dump site to personally appraise the situation on ground first hand and from what I have seen here, it’s quite pathetic. I must act immediately to address all issues hindering refuse collection, evacuation and proper dumping in line with global best practices.

“We are putting a proper arrangement in place to relocate the dump site from the city, but in the meantime the site must be managed properly. So, my presence here is to assess the site to enable us deploy the necessary machineries to make it workable in line with current realities.

“Let me use this medium to inform everyone that by the time we put our thoughts to work, Calabar will be clean again”, the Governor said.

Also, the Dump site Manager, Ayi Etim Effiong decried shortage of the necessary machines to properly manage the site. He informed the state Chief Executive that the site was facing technical and human encroachment issues, arguing on the need to keep it safely open for dumps.

Effiong said “We normally receive all kinds of refuse here, hazardous, toxic hence the need to relocate but since the government has demonstrated a political will to make it conducive for dumps, we will work assiduously to ensure that His Excellency’s planned action is safely executed.”