Obi begs Umahi to fix deplorable roads in Southeast, Southwest

By Seyifunmi Odunuga 

The Onyendu Ndigbo of Ibadanland and Oyo State, High Chief Alloysious Obi, has called on the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, to, as a matter of urgency, look into repairing the deplorable roads from the South East to the South West.

Obi, who is the Chief Executive Officer of A.O. Obi and Sons West Africa, said that, as a businessman, he has experienced the hardship caused by roads spanning six states, namely Anambra, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Oyo.

According to him, the roads include Ibadan-Ijebu Ode; Ijebu Ode-Ore-Okada-Benin and all the way to Onitsha, and travelling on these roads is like having a date with hardship.

He disclosed that he lost two trailers he used for haulage in the last month, lamenting that during his last journey from Onitsha to Ibadan, he spent over 12 hours on the road.

Obi appealed to Engr. Umahi, whom he described as a man with listening ears, to do everything humanly possible to fix the roads to alleviate the suffering Nigerians undergo daily on the roads, insisting that doing this would bring great relief to the people in the six states. 

While noting that permanently fixing the roads may take a long time, the Chairman of Ndindu Ndigbo in Diaspora stated that the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) can do palliative works on the roads, maintaining that the roads need urgent government intervention to reduce the hardship people pass through plying them.

He declared that putting toll gates on the roads when they are fixed will go a long way to generate revenue for the government, insisting that it is better to pay toll on good roads than to face hardship on deplorable roads.

He said, “I want to appeal to our dear Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, to help fix the federal roads in the six states of Anambra, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Oyo. Indeed, it is like hell travelling from the South East to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. On my part, I spent over 12 hours travelling from Onitsha to Ibadan.

“I believe that urgent fixing of the roads and even palliative works by FERMA will bring a big relief to Nigerians who daily ply these roads. Indeed, it will be better to do this as quickly as possible, as the roads get more deteriorated during rainy seasons.”