By CrossRiverWatch Admin
Cross River state governor, Senator Ben Ayade has explained why he is not interested in expanding and upgrading the Bebi Airstrip near the Obudu Ranch Resort to an international passenger and cargo airport, saying the strip is nestled in a magnetic mountain with high accidents rate.
The governor disclosed this while hosting the Cross River state Chairman of the Nigeria Labor Congress NLC, Comrade Ukpepi who paid him a courtesy visit at the government house recently. The governor said “even if you renovate the Ranch with gold, after five hours of a tortuous journey from Calabar to the Ranch, it will be difficult to convince you to do a second trip. So, no matter what you do, the first challenge for any professional who is looking properly into dealing with the issue is to first and foremost address access to the ranch because when you get there beautifully without stress, you will love to come back again and again.”
Ayade listed the construction of the superhighway and the Obudu International Airport as part of the plans to revamp the ranch “because the Bebi Airstrip is locked into a magnetic mountain, it has a very high accident rate. People are scared of flying into the airstrip. My plan now is to fix access to ranch properly and when the airport (Obudu International Cargo airport) is ready alongside the superhighway, I will bring in Disney World as part of revamping the Ranch.”
Cross River state, with a population estimated to be four million, already has the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, which is classified by the federal airports authority of Nigeria FAAN as one of the non viable airports in Nigeria due to under utilization. The state also boasts of the Airstrip near the ranch resort and the governor has also started the acquisition and grading of a 9km square land in Obudu for a proposed Obudu International Cargo airport, which will become the third airport in the state.