Cross Rivers State To Revive Obudu Mountain Race
The Cross River State Government has concluded plans to revive the foremost 11.25km annual Obudu Mountain Race, which was last held in 2014.
Governor Bassey Otu made the statement while fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar, the State capital. He, however, said that a lot of things needed to be put in place before the race could be organised.
The governor listed some of the infrastructure to be put in place such as the completion of the Obudu Airport, rehabilitation of the Obudu ranch, among others. He noted that revival of the annual race is part of the plan to further boost the tourism potentials of the state.
“At no time did we foreclose the return of the annual race. But it’s return is predicated on putting somethings in order,” Governor Otu said. “For instance, we have to finish with the airport and the rehabilitation of the ranch. We are working hard on the airport completion.”
“Cross River remains the tourism destination of the country and it took men of wisdom, who worked hard to achieve this. All we can do is to add value to what they achieved. COVID-19 dealt a blow to this sector (tourism) and paucity of funds is not helping us move at the pace we want.”
“The Obudu mountain race will be back and better organised,” he concluded.
It would be recalled that the annual race was conceptualised in 2005 under the administration of Donald Duke.
The annual 11.25km race brought in athletes from all across the world with a lot of prizes running into hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs.
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