Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has lauded Governor Udom Emmanuel over his administration’s stride on infrastructure in Akwa Ibom as he commissioned a 21-storey smart building in state capital, Uyo, on Friday.
Osinbajo commended the Akwa Ibom State Governor for the level of infrastructural development and industrialization drive in the state.
The building was conceived and constructed by the Udom administration to offer office accommodation to oil giants exploring oil and gas but headquartered outside the state.
The Commissioner for Special Duties, Hon. Okpolum Ette whose ministry supervised the building project expressed the intention and expectations of Akwa Ibom people at the tape cutting ceremony.
“Permit me, Your Excellencies, to take you down memory lane. In 2017, the Federal Government directed all International Oil Companies (IOCs) to site their administrative headquarters within the States of their operations. This directive is in sink with the long struggle and agitation by the peaceful people of Akwa Ibom State for all Oil Companies operating in the State to relocate their headquarters to Akwa Ibom State.”
The 21 storeys building also called ‘Dakkada Towers’ is an ultra-modern Tower situated on a site area of 48,200 square metres (4.82 hectares). It is an ICT compliant intelligent structure with a 24 hours power supply, it is 104 metres high with 21 floors of rentable office spaces, surrounded by a podium that includes restaurants, banks and adequate convenience services. It has a parking space which can accommodate about 400 cars.
The smart building rests on forty-nine (49) number 1.2 diameter piles with a 32-meter average depth. Some exclusive features installed in the building include Card readers, Fire protected (or fireproof) doors and a Central stand-alone server workstation.
Also fitted as special details are Time attendance readers, Automated cards, Automated turnstiles, and Humidity and temperature sensors on all the floors.
Professor Osinbajo described the building as one of the smartest and tallest in the country and applauded the governor for the timely completion of the project.
The Vice President, who congratulated the government and the people of the state on their 34th-anniversary celebration, congratulated the people of the state for the achievements recorded so far and prayed to God for more grace for the Governor to do more.
He said with the level of infrastructural development and industrialisation, the state will soon emerge as the economic hub of the nation.
Earlier Governor Udom Emmanuel had said the building is an answer to the question of accommodation by international oil companies.
Earlier, the Vice President had flagged off the construction of the Dakkada Luxury Estate along Airport Road, Uyo.
