Abuja (Nan) — The Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly, Mr Agwu U. Agwu, has decried the poor state of basic infrastructure in the state.Agwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that paucity of fund had made it difficult for the state govern-ment to embark on capital projects that would impact on the lives of the people.

He said that many indigenes of the state are finding it difficult to return home and invest because of the absence of basic infrastructure and the state of insecurity in the zone.

"You need to create an enabling environment to attract investment to your state," he said.

Agwu said that the State House of Assembly would continue to work in collaboration with the executive to ensure that the people get dividends of democracy.

He also stated that members of the House of Assembly have all decided to stay away from constituency allowance in order to avoid running into trouble with the EFCC.

"What we do is that, at the end of the day, we include all constituency projects in the budget for the executive to execute," he said.

He said that members always make sure that implementation of projects are carried out by the executive.

Agwu said that the state government had awarded contracts for the construction of roads within the state as part of dividends of demo-cracy, adding that the Ozu Abam-Ututu-Arochukwu road had been awarded at more than N2 billion.