The execution of the proposed 260-kilometre super highway project of Cross River State has been welcomed but stands to erode the country’s eligibility to the $1 billion (over N300 billion) grant from the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD).
On January 22, 2016 the state government revoked the Certificate of Occupancy of the land along the highway from Esighi, Bakassi Local Government Council to Bekwarra Local Government Council. This action aroused the concern of many stakeholders including the Coalition for Environment (NGOSE), which has as one of its objectives the promotion of environmental sustainability through education and community participation.
Environmentalists have expressed fears that the project if executed would destroy virgin vegetation and forest along the road route.
Odigha Odigha, a member of NGOSE Board of Trustees told newsmen in Calabar that it is only proper and a show of integrity that the nation honors the agreement that it has endorsed. The environmentalist added that Nigeria has endorsed a lot of international treaties and domesticated some of them, which include diversity climate, the climate change agreement lately and the UN-REDD programme using Cross River as a pilot.
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“Cross River State is a pilot site to the REDD programme, which is operational here and as I speak we are at the stage of submitting the REDD strategy and there is a validation going on that will open Nigeria up to accessing some good funds and some other things,” Odigha siad.
