Benin - Auchi Road: Example of Government Criminal Negligence/Waywardness

By Chris Tony Akhabue

To some, travelling through Libya desert, and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe is easier, more comfortable and less hazardous than traveling to Abuja through Benin- Auchi road.

This opinion though an overstatement, however, from investigations, has immense semblance with the above viewpoint.

Going to Europe through Libya desert and going to Abuja through Benin-Auchi dangerous tracks shares almost same life threatening potentials .

To most Nigerian youths of today, considering the life of despondency of Nigerian populace, taking the first option might make more sense than the later.

The journey to determine the extent of the deplorable condition of the Benin Auchi road by a team of journalists began at 7 am few days back.

A commercial vehicle was hired

for the trip that appeared more or less a suicide mission. 

Yes, a suicide mission it is for anyone plying that stretch of the road from Benin to Ekpoma up to Okenne and Abuja. Aside from the route which once prided itself as a major highway linking the Southern parts of Nigeria with the northern region, is now revered as a valley of death or death trap as the muddy trap of the road is highly infested with aggressive savages who kidnap, rape and behead commuters for ransom at will.

Ordinarily, in a normal situation, the journey from Benin to Ekpoma ought not to be more than 45 minutes drive but normalcy as it were, is long gone far from Nigeria and Nigerians.

 From our findings, from the Benin metropolis to Ehor is fairly motorable, with meandering, stopping, bumping, jumping and leaping from one pot-hole to another ditch or from one pit to another deep gulley and life threatening holes.

Intermittently, we stopped to take snaps as the driver of the vehicle who plies the road regularly and who knows the traumatic turns was our tour guide of the hellish voyage.

At some point, he would advise that we shouldn't stop at some particular points as it was , according to him, " Aso Rock" which means, the stronghold of kidnappers and other criminal elements.

 He told us, pointing to a spot, "It was here that three persons and I were kidnapped for the first time, but I managed to escape while the others weren't as lucky", our tour guide informed us.

He told us stories of how countless scores of passengers were traped, kidnapped and killed daily on the road because of the deplorable state of disrepair which have subsequently become harbinger of death as kidnappers lurk around in wait for their victims who are trapped in the muddy stretch of the road.

 THE UN MOTORABLE PORTIONS OF THE ROAD.

From the Benin axis of the road is seriously dilapidated and in dire need of urgent intervention, but there are some sections that are in their worst form, with life threatening formulations like deep gully, big holes and ditches at the middle of the road which have rendered it completely unpassable.

These most dangerous stretches could be found, starting from around Ebute road junction before Iruekpen, stretching through Ekpoma with about six kilometers of the road that passes through the University town completely washed off. 

Aside from the Ambrose Alli University gate and the school of Medical Sciences, the rest stretch of the road to Opoji junction in Esan West local government area down to as far as Irrua and Ewu in Esan Central Local government area down to Agbede in Etsako West local government area are completely cut off from the rest of the state.

At Ebute road junction, you could see broken down trucks and drivers toiling with shovels and holes digging muddy earth in utter frustrating moments of despair.

 One of our respondents at a spot between Iruekpen and the Ambrose Alli University gate, Kabiru Muhammad , a truck driver who was visibly distressed and worried by his travails in what may have seem to him an endless hellish voyage told the Champion newspaper correspondent that he has been on the same spot now for three days.

" I left my wife and children in Benin since Thursday. I told them they should wait for me to go to Auchi and come back to come and give them money for food. My truck sank inside potopoto(mud) and I have been trying to move the truck out of the ditch since that day without success and today now is Sunday. I don't have money on me. My wife is calling me that they have bought food on credit. Any day I get back home now, the debt would be the first thing I need to pay. The owners of the load I am taking to Auchi are worrying me on phone. The owner of the truck is worried. Today is Sunday and I don't know when I will leave this place," he lamented.

The popular Big Joe motor Park that used to be a beehive of commercial activities with hawkers selling various wares is now an isolated and deserted park by the side of earth mud of a road with one or two vehicles.

The petrol station opposite Big Joe wears the same forlorn look without any commercial activity as a result of the deplorable state of the road.

At Mousco petrol station at Ukpenu junction, in Ekpoma, Esan West local government area, a resident of the area, Chief Benedict Akhigbe who spoke with the News crew said he has lived in that area since 1980. He said the dilapidated road has been so for the past 12 years but got worst since the last 3 years and as a result of the ugly situation, all commercial activities that hitherto thrived within the vicinity have all vanished rendering the place forlorn and deserted. 

" My appeal is that the government should, as a matter of urgency come to our rescue by fixing the road so that life of normalcy can return back to our community because many people have deserted the place to seek solace in other places as the environment can no longer sustain any meaningful business as it were presently".

Another respondent in the area, Mrs Gladys Okhiria, bean cake seller, said that the deplorable condition of the road has deprived her and many others of their sources of livelihood.

"The bad condition of the road has made me loose all my customers. When the road was good, I used to fry Akara so many times and customers would surround me asking for Akara. Then, I used to make like ten thousand Naira and above from sales but today because the road is very bad, customers no longer come to buy and because of that I no longer make good sales. Now I find it difficult to make three thousand Naira a day."

"I am calling on the government to please come to our aids by coming to repair the road so that my customers can come and buy Akara so that I can take care of myself and my family from the proceed of my sales" she pleaded.

Also speaking, a social crusader and convener of Concerned Ekpoma Citizens Forum (CECF), Dr. Jude Obasanmi noted that several representations have been made to the Federal Ministry of Works and other relevant intervention agencies to come to rescue the people who are now traumatised as a result of the deplorable state of the road.

He added his voice to the call on the Ahmed Bola Tinubu led federal government to come to the aid of road users in Edo State and rehabilitate the road.

Similarly, speaking with the news men at the area, Mr. Peter Aisagbonhi pointed at the stranded and broken down trucks laden with goods and valuables describing them as economic waste.

"All these trucks loaded up with goods and valuables are economic waste to the owners and the nation as a whole.

"As you can see from the bad situation of the road, the transportation of goods and services is completely blocked as the road is completely unpassable. What you see here is just one part, of all other parts from here to Auchi. We managed to drive from Auchi to this place today but I must confess that the road is in shambles and completely in a deplorable state.

"Why I am very much concerned is that they say we should renew hope. The renewal of the hope is that we pray, we plead, we beg God, Allah and Tinubu to come and rescue us from this eye saw and national embarrassment that a federal road has become" 

In his views, Honourable Isaac Irisoh, an All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart and a social affairs analyst from Esan South East Local government area of Edo state said that the road is indeed in a deplorable condition. He said that, the road situation has been so for the past 10 years now and it has adversely affected the economic fortunes of the people especially the movement of produce from the farms to the markets and to the city centers which has contributed to the soaring of prices of farm produce and other goods in the market. He noted that the bad road has also contributed to the hike in transport fares which are contributing to the high cost of living in Edo Central and therefore urged the good people of Edo state particularly the people of Edo Central Senatorial District to exercise just a little more patience, as he promised that the road would soon be redeemed.

" My good people of Edo State, it is a fact that the road is in very bad state but I want to assure you that very soon it shall be a thing of the past as the road would soon be rehabilitated because when good people are in position of leadership, good things are the attendant results as Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress is now the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by the grace of God when our own Honourable Joseph Ikpea is nominated and voted into power as the governor of Edo state under the All Progressives Congress in 2024, I want to assure you that the solution to the problem of that road would come and that ugly situation of the road presently would be a thing of the past".

 At Agbede, the situation is so terrible that occurence of accidents are a regular sight so much so that the place is now literally refered to as "accident junction". Relics and carcasses of burnt out and broken trucks litter the whole place.

 Halimat Mohammed, a resident of the area at Agbede there, said they find it difficult to sleep at night because of the rumbling sound of long trucks and blaring sounds of the horns of broken down long vehicles 

" We find it difficult to sleep at night because of the noise from trucks and the blaring of horns. Every time there is one vehicular accident or another so much so that the area is now popularly refered to as "accidents junction".

She further added that, " We are begging the government to come to our rescue. If the government can not repair the road, let them come and help us shift our house farther from the road" she pleaded.

Earlier, the immediate past Minister for Finance and Budget, Clem Agba, while fielding questions from journalists during a courtesy visit penultimate week to the Edo state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Benin City, had said that the major reason why the road has not been rehabilitated was as a result of bureaucratic bottlenecks which has been delaying the rehabilitation of the road. 

According to him, the movement of contract files from one table to the other and from one office to the other usually take long period and by the time final approval is gotten and the contractors are mobilized they usually complain that the contract need to be reappraised and reevaluated as the cost had gone up due to time lags and the resultant effect of increase in the contractual agreement due to increase in the prices materials.