- Road To Get Face-lift After Years Of Neglect
From Amaechi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta Correspondent)
Efforts are ongoing to give the Effurun-Abraka road a face-lift as the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has mobilized all the needed support to fix some bad roads among other projects in Delta state.
At the behest of Senator Omo-Agege’s legislative intervention, the men of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, (FERMA), awarded with the contract, were mobilized for the maintenance work which began on the about 50-kilometre road during the week.
According to field reports on the ongoing maintenance project, in two days, repair work was completed at the PTI junction, in Uvwie Local Government Area, en-route Osubi. The work has progressed to Okah junction — a distance of 10 kilometer approximately.
Omo-Agege, the Obarisi of Urhobo land and the Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South South deployed his legislative sagacity to enlist the intervention of the relevant federal road agencies in working on strategic roads in Delta that were due for maintenance in the running 2020 budget.
According to motorists and many residents, the significance of the Effurun-Abraka road cannot be over-emphasized. This is not only because it is the major link between two economic hubs of Warri/Effurun metropolis and the ever-busy University town of Abraka, the road also connects four local government areas of Uvwie, Okpe, Ethiope-East and Ughelli North.
Students of the state-owned Delta State University, (DELSU) who are from the riverine Local Government Areas of Burutu, Warri South West, Udu, Ughelli South and Warri South ply the road on a daily basis to their campus. It is also strategic for the supply of farm produce from agrarian communities situated along the routes to Warri/Effurun and Abraka University town. Important personalities who patronize the Osubi airport also make use of the road. This explains why the Effurun-Abraka road, a state road, is an ever-busy one.
Recall that this is a single lane road which was first designed and constructed by the colonial masters in the early 19th century. However, the poor state of the road has remained a nightmare to Deltans because of its appalling condition over the years. Deep potholes, gullies and ditches during the rains, sharp dangerous bends and very narrow bridges have become the lot of the road such that a journey that would conventionally take a motorist about 25 minutes now takes sometimes between two to three hours, especially during the rainy season.
Field checks and data indicate that as a result of the dilapidated state of the road, hoodlums have taken advantage of it to rob, kidnap and kill innocent motorists almost on a daily basis. Their nefarious activities are made easier as they cut down trees on the sides of the road to create artificial blockades especially at night. Many Deltans traveling along the road have lost their lives through the activities of the hoodlums or through auto-accident occasioned by the bad state of the road. This has been the helpless state of the road for several decades.
Field data further show that since the the commencement of the present democratic dispensation, no successive administration in the state has made very visible, notable and evident moves to prioritize the road on its top scale of preference. This is not-withstanding the fact that the road deserves top priority on several grounds. It is important to note that it was only the immediate past administration of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan that made evident and visible attempts to dualize the road.
However, it has remained in that state since the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa came on board in 2015. The suffering by users and motorists on the road persists despite the fact that there are legislators and Commissioners from these affected Local Government Areas where the road intersects and connects., respectively. In fact, nothing meaningful appears to have been done on the road to alleviate these untold hardship by road users.
It was in a determined efforts to bring to an end the harrowing and atrocious experience on the road that the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege was said to have intervened. Senator Omo-Agege who represents Delta Central at the Upper Legislative Chambers, and who is believed to have also experienced the awful and nasty situation of the road reportedly intervened to alleviate the sufferings of Deltans on that road.
The Assistant Director of FERMA in Delta State could not be reached to give the estimated time of completion of the maintenance project. However, an engineer on site, who spoke anonymously to The New Diplomat, assured that the work will be completed up to Abraka, before the year runs out.
Delighted by the ongoing repairs on the road, a cross section of Deltans have appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for intervening to alleviate the suffering of millions of Deltans due to the visible neglect of the road by the state government. They commended President Buhari for being a visionary and for helping to bring an end to the agony of motorists on this road.
The cross section of Deltans were also full of praises for the Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Senator Omo-Agege, for using his good offices to attract the gesture of the federal government to Delta State.
In a related development, the ongoing dualization of Sapele-Agbor federal road, one of the most strategic projects attracted to Delta State by Omo-Agege, is also in top gear.
The New Diplomat’s checks reveal that maintenance work on the road has been completed up to Okpara Waterside as the project has continued in good and commendable pace unhindered.
Some concerned Deltans say other key projects being executed in different communities in the Delta state, courtesy of the Deputy President of the Senate, include the supply and installation of electric power transformers in various parts of Delta State to boost power supply. This is also being complemented by the completed/ongoing street light projects in several communities in the state.
