•Road crashes claim lives, businesses crumble
•Armed robbers, kidnappers hold us to ransom on dilapidated roads –Commuters
From Stanley Uzoaru, George Onyejiuwa (Owerri); Uchenna Inya (Abakaliki); Okey Sampson (Umuahia); Wilson Okereke (Afikpo); Felix Ikem (Nsukka); Emmanuel Uzor (Awka)
As Nigeria celebrates 25 years of unbroken democratic rule, there are a number of challenges that pre-date the current democratic dispensation. Among the many challenges that the people have lived with over the years is a long history of dilapidated infrastructure. To say that roads across the country are in bad shape is an understatement. So bad is the situation that road travels in many parts of the country have become a nightmare. Road transport operators groan under the yoke of heavy costs of maintenance of their vehicles while business owners who have no alternative means of moving their raw materials and products other than by roads, count their losses by the day. In most parts of the country, the bad roads are some sort of new haven for criminal elements of diverse backgrounds.
In this special report series, Saturday Sun correspondents across the states toured the country from east to west and from the north to the south, capturing how bad the situation is. The South-east is one of the geopolitical zones covered by our reporters.
Imo
Federal roads that pass through Imo State have been in bad shape for decades. Some of the most difficult ones to access are the Ideato/ Orlu/Owerri Road; the Owerri/Okigwe; Owerri/ Mbaise/Umuahia; and the Owerri/Onitsha roads.
These roads have been in various degrees of dilapidation for several years. Of these roads the Owerri/Onitsha road still remains the most motorable except at the Mgbidi stretch of the road which is currently being fixed by the state government for easy flow of traffic. However, a section of the road at Irete community which has collapsed for a long time has continued to cause traffic jams.
The Ideato/Orlu/Owerri Road has been in a terrible shape before the intervention of the current administration in Imo, which got the approval of the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstruct the Orlu/Owerri section of the federal road from the Banana Junction down to Owerri. But the Orlu /Mgbe/Ideato section of that road, which stretches to Uga Junction in Anambra State has remained a nightmare for the users as the attempted dualization of the road by the former administration of Sen. Rochas Okorocha was never realized.
Similarly, the Owerri/Okigwe Road, which was also in a state of dilapidation, has been reconstructed. Meanwhile, the reconstruction work on the Owerri/Umuhia road also being carried out by the state government is being executed in sections. From the Owerri axis beginning from Shoprite roundabout has been dualized down to Emekuku. However, the Mbaise section of the road is still under reconstruction.
The Owerri/Port Harcourt Road around Umuapu has remained in a parlous state in the last 16 years when the contract was awarded to Arab Contractors. As a result of the terrible state of the road especially from the Unuagwo/Umuapu axis in Ohaji down to the boundary between Imo and Rivers states. Commuters have had a harrowing experience as many have been robbed of their belongings by hoodlums especially at night. It was learnt that the contract for the reconstruction and dualization of this all important highway which connects the South-east to the South-south states was awarded in 2002 by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to Arab Contractors during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The project is yet uncompleted.
Saturday Sun also gathered that kidnappers have made this zone their area of jurisdiction. In May this year, gunmen abducted all 18 passengers travelling to Port Harcourt from Owerri around Umuapu Ohaji in Ohaji/Egbema council area of Imo State, after they had shot the driver of the commuter bus.
“During the rainy season, you cannot drive through this place. I wondered why this important road has been like this for several years,” said Chibuikem Ike, a commuter.
Anayo Odinaka, a commercial bus driver, blamed federal legislators from the state as well as the state government for the continued neglect of the Owerri/Port Harcourt highway. He noted that if the legislators and the governors, past and present, were alive to their responsibilities they would have done something about the terrible state of the road.
Nzeribe Osondu, a resident of Umuapu community in Ohaji told our correspondent that the pitiable condition of the road has caused a great deal to the residents. He further disclosed that the people also suffer low patronage as most of their customers who usually come from Owerri to buy vegetables and fruits now find it difficult to come because of the bad condition of the road.
The Owerri/Aba highway is not better as the contractors have abandoned the road. In fact, the Ngor Okpala section of the road has remained in a perilous state. Road accidents occur frequently on this section of the road as a result of the deep potholes.
Just last September no fewer than 22 passengers lost their lives in a fatal accident at Umuowa community in Ngor Okpala, when an Aba bound commuter bus had a head on collision with the one coming from the Owerri end while trying to dodge a deep pothole. The only section of the road that is good is around the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport junction which was expanded earlier this year by the state government. However, the entire stretch of the expressway down to Aba has become a death trap.
Ebonyi
In Ebonyi State, Saturday Sun found out that a number of roads are in bad shape. They include the Akpoha/Afikpo and Amasiri/Akaeze/Okigwe axis of the Abakaliki-Afikpo-Okigwe highway, as well as the Nkwegu/Onueke end. Also in bad shape is the Ebonyi State University permanent site axis of the Abakaliki-Enugu expressway, among others.
Some of these roads were reconstructed by the immediate past governor of the state, Dave Umahi who is currently the Minister of Works, and the state was said to have been reimbursed by the federal government. However, some of the roads failed before the end of his administration.
Meanwhile, Umahi has said that only three federal roads constructed by his administration have failed. Umahi explained why those areas failed when he interacted with journalists in Abakaliki, some time ago.
He said: “But you see a lot of the concrete roads we did, we have only three failures; failures in Amasiri, failures at EBSU road and the one at Nkwegu. The reason is because they used hill sand and that hill sand anywhere you see it run away from it. It retains a lot of water no matter what you do.”
A motorist, Gabriel Oko who shuttles Afikpo/Akpoha to supply sachet water to retailers in Abakaliki, told Saturday Sun that he had been robbed three times on the road.
“I was robbed of N350,000 I got from supplying water to our customers in Abakaliki and this money was not mine, it belonged to the company that produces the water that I went to supply. The company later said that they no longer needed my services and I was sacked.
“I later got another job. I was robbed on this same axis and the criminals collected my phone and the N70,000 I was given by a friend in Abakaliki to give to his son, a student in Afikpo, as his school fees.
“The Akpoha/Afikpo side of the highway is so bad that if you are not robbed, your vehicle will have an accident or break down along the road. Don’t forget that it was on this road that the Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University and former Rector of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Afikpo, Professor Francis Otunta and a lawyer, were killed in an accident about two years ago. There are many other persons that have died in road crashes on this same road,” he stated.
Nkama Egwu, another motorist who shuttles Amasiri/Akaeze/Okigwe highway, laments that the road is no longer passable.
“Drivers no longer pass through this road while travelling to Abia or Imo. I have been avoiding the road. I drive through Onicha/Uburu/Mpu/Ishiagu road whenever I am traveling because the Amasiri/Akaeze/Okigwe highway is now a deathtrap. No sane traveler will go through this road. Apart from the deplorable state of the road, robberies also occur on the road frequently, Egwu said.”
Abia
In Abia State, the Umuahia/Owerri, Umuahia/Ohafia and the Umuahia/Ikot Ekpene highways are in very deplorable conditions. Although appreciable work has been done on the Aba section of the Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway, the Aba to Port Harcourt section remains a death trap.
As a result of the deplorable state of the road, articulated vehicle drivers staged a protest to drive home their frustration. The drivers who narrated their traumatic experiences on the road, claimed most of their members have lost their lives as a result of the state of the road.
They also claimed that the road has equally remained a source of worry to them as their vehicles get spoilt daily on the road. Despite these, that portion of the road has remained unattended to.
It is the same ugly story for the Umuahia/Ikot Ekpene highway. A student of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, was crushed to death by a trailer as the driver was maneuvering through craters on the road.
Jude Obi, a commercial bus driver who operates along the Umuahia – Owerri highway, said: “It is hellish playing on this road. It appears that the non reconstruction of the road was deliberate by the federal government and I believe it is part of a marginalization agenda against the South-east.
“There is no day I will go to work and will not visit the mechanic workshop because of the effect of the deplorable state of the road on my vehicle. There is no day when accidents do not occur on that road with its attendant loss of lives.
Celestine Madu, an agriculturist said plying the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road, which for him, is inevitable, affects him adversely in so many ways.
“Each time I travel to my village in Ikwuano local government area of Abia State, using that road, I always fall sick as a result of the deplorable condition. Apart from that, I must visit my mechanic’s workshop to get my car fixed because something must go wrong with it.”
Enugu
For the Ninth Mile/Enugu/Otukpo/Makurdi Road, the Minister of Works, had in February this year, flagged off the construction and dualization of the road.
Five months after the flag-off, no meaningful work has been done on the Ninth Mile-Obollo Afor axis of the road which is the major access road from the northern part of the country to the South-east.
The road had been in a deplorable condition for nearly a decade which elicited public outcry. There have been avoidable auto crashes, incessant trapping of vehicles with goods worth millions of naira for several weeks and months as well as exposure of road users to kidnappers and other criminal elements. These come with impact on social and economic activities of residents of the area. Last year there was a total collapse of the road between October and November following years of neglect. Saturday Sun visited the road in January this year, there palliative work as the bad portions of the road were filled with hardcore stones and sand, making the road manageable.
Sunday Ezema, a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Nsukka, decried the deplorable condition of the road and urged the federal government to expedite action on the rehabilitation of the roads to ease the suffering of motorists and commuters.
“Our drivers have abandoned the road due to its poor condition. The road is in terrible shape because of many years of poor maintenance. It has consumed many lives, destroyed many vehicles and people’s goods. Government should prioritize the maintenance of the road given that it is a gateway that connects the North and the East,” he said.
Chinekwu Eneje, an interstate commercial bus driver said that the road has always been a nightmare for commercial drivers and commuters due to its parable condition.
“The Ninth Mile-Makurdi road is the worst federal road I have ever plied in this country. The road has remained a death trap for motorists for many years now. Thank God for this present administration. We heard the government has awarded a contract for the reconstruction and dualization of the road, even though the contractors are yet to commence work on the Enugu State section of the road.
“The only reason we are passing through the road, for now, is because they filled the bad portion of it some months ago, but with the rainy season already in the corner that road will soon become hellish. My experience on the road as a commercial driver is unspeakable.
Chukwuebuka Igboka, from Onyohor community in Igbo-Etiti local government area of Enugu State, said that the deplorable condition of the road has brought untold hard on the residents, stressing that social and economic activities of the people whose community, market and other businesses were situated along the road have been paralyzed.
“This road was so bad that the access road to our community and others was cut off at some point in time. The Nkwo Ogbede commodity market which is one of the biggest markets along the road became a shadow of itself as traders and customers could not access the market due to the deplorable situation of the road.
Anambra
In Anambra State, the ever busy Enugu-Onistha expressway has remained impassable. At the Amansea, the gateway into Awka, the state capital, the two lanes have remained in ruins. Though there is ongoing construction at one of the lanes within Amansea and Awka, the Awkuzu-Umunya axis of the road has remained a death trap.
Dike Onyeka, a driver with Onitsha South Transport Company, lamented that the bad state of the federal road has hampered their movement and profit.
He said due to the condition of the expressway, it now takes more time to access destinations, especially from Enugu to Onitsha.
“When you are going to Onitsha, you will have little respite because the road is relatively better, especially one lane from Ugwu Onyeama to Ugwuoba. Though it’s one lane that they repaired, it is very good but once you enter Ugwuoba to Amansea, you will run into a horrible part of the road. That’s why we divert from Ugwuoba immediately after Oji River. We burst out at Immigration Junction before the Anambra State Government House. We do this to avoid the bad portions of the road.”
Ndubusi Alor, a road user, said the worst part of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway is the Abba junction to Awkuzu-Umunya axis. He said while little palliative works had been done on the road from the government house through Aroma, there is still a need to fix the remaining portions of the expressway.
“From the Amawbia junction flyover, you could see the place has been blocked. This is as a result of the bad portion of the expressway. There’s a need by the federal government to fix these roads even if it’s one lane to Onitsha. The condition of this expressway is affecting economic activities in the South-east because Onitsha is the commercial hub in the zone,” Alor told Saturday Sun.
NEXT WEEK: SOUTH WEST