The Asagba of Asaba, His Royal Majesty, Asagba Prof Epiphany Chigbogu Azinge, SAN,OON, has made a passionate appeal to the relevant federal authorities to urgently rehabilitate the failed portions of the Asaba end of the Asaba-Benin highway.
The monarch, who inspected the affected portions on Wednesday, expressed dismay that the ever busy road had remained unattended to for over one year, even with the nightmare the users had been subjected to.
Asagba Prof Azinge noted that though the rehabilitation of the road was flagged off in the month of March, having to wait for the job to progress from the Agbor end was no longer tenable as the dilapidation seemed to be getting worse every passing day, especially with the rains and the attendant flooding on the road.
He said the consequences of the bad road on the socioeconomic life of the Asaba community needed not to be over-emphasized, insisting that there should be a quick intervention by the Federal Government to make the road passable, pending when the full rehabilitation would get to the Asaba end.
The Asagba pointed out that the bad state of the road was affecting flights to the Asaba airport, and by extension the economy of the town, while heavy duty vehicles, in a bid to avoid the failed portions, had taken the Asaba inner roads as alternative routes to and from the eastern part of the country.
“It’s also affecting us socially in the sense that there’s now a bit of heavy duty vehicles from this road into Asaba and these vehicles will ultimately lead to a break down of our roads inside the village and if care is not taken; if this is allowed to continue till December, there will be nothing left of Asaba inner roads.
“So we are concerned and I want to use this medium to call on the Federal Government to quickly intervene. I want to see how I can reach out to the relevant authorities, including the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the Federal Ministry of Works, to see what they can do here. It is now a matter of urgency, so something must be done.
“Mind you this is the rainy season. So the earlier something is done the better, even if it is the State Government that can do it and see how they can be recouped by the Federal Government, I believe that will also help.
“Bringing bad press to Asaba means putting Asaba name in the wrong direction and it is not something I can sit idly by as the Asagba of Asaba and allow this to continue. I don’t need to talk about the consequences. It has its toll on the road users. I believe something urgently has to be done. This is an express road; the road leading to Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of Nigeria.
“Something must be done. Food items move through here straight to Onitsha; people, farmers and the rest of them are affected adversely by the state of this road. So I respectfully invite the Federal Government to see what they can do, and urgently too. I believe that the road users are suffering and the earlier this is attended to, the better”, the highly revered traditional ruler emphasized.
