Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State, who made this known over the weekend in Lagos, said that every taxable Igbo adult will be expected to pay N100 each towards the project.

According to the governor, who said that he is leading the initiative, the highway was abandoned by Julius Berger, the construction giants handling it after the federal government paid only about N1 billion out of the more than 4 billion work that they had done on the project.

He said that given the strategic nature of the road, the people were enthusiastic about the self-help initiative and were ready to call the government’s bluff.

The Sam Mbakwe Airport in Owerri, Imo State as well as most electricity, water and sundry other projects in the five states of the South East zone of the country were put in place through the self-help efforts of the people of the areas.

Gov Ohakim also said that Imo State has lost a $500 million Chinese investment owing to the hostage saga in the Niger-Delta, as the Chinese people handling the project fled the state when one of their nationals was kidnapped in Port Harcourt.

He said that the Chinese project would have created 20,000 jobs in the state.

Ohakim also said the cessation of operations of the U.S. oil service company Wilbros in Port Harcourt was due to the hostage saga.

He, therefore, called for concerted effort to halt the hostage taking, describing it as a disincentive to investments and development efforts.

He said his administration would establish three job centres in each of the state’s senatorial zones.

``The job centres will train the unemployed in skills critical to the state’s needs through the skills acquisition centres,’’ Ohakim said.