Ikpoba Hill Road Protest, Matters Arising

By Chris Tony Akhabue

The protest by Ikpoba Hill Youths over the deplorable condition of the road linking Benin- Agbor and other South South States of the federation has elicited commendable response as the Edo state government has put mechanism in place to ensure required palliative is done on the failed portions to make it motorable until comprehensive rehabilitation is done by concerned federal authorities.

Recall that the deplorable situation of the road irked the youths who took to the streets and consequently barricaded the road in several places to press home their demand for its rehabilitation.

Palliative work has started earnestly from the Tony Dee point as hard core used as palliative have eased off the chaotic situations on that axis.

 Speaking to the champion newspaper correspondent, the Ikpoba Hill Youths Forum chairman, Comrade Kingsley Osemwigie said that he is happy that the Edo state governo Mr Godwin Obaseki visited the protesting youths to assure them of his readiness to have the failed portions repaired and has actually fulfilled his promise .

According to him, " His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo state has visited the Youths to assure them of his preparedness to fix the bad road and has deployed men and materials to commence the repair work and as you can see, work has started from Tony Dee up to where we are standing now, and because of the remedial work done so far, that is why you see free flow of vehicular movement now.

" I want the public to disregard the statement by a certain radio station that disparaged the rehabilitation work that is currently being carried out. What we the Youths of Ikpoba Hill begged the governor to do for us is palliative work and he has obliged us and work is ongoing and there is no way you can expect palliative work to be exactly like newly tarred road and I expect people to appreciate our governor.

"The Tony Dee axis that the radio station sited as not properly done was as a result of the fact that it rained heavily while they were doing the road and vehicles drove over the rehabilitated portions and was destroyed but the contractor handling the rehabilitation work has promised to revisit the said portions with a view to conducting another repair so I condemn that report by Speed FM as it lacks merit and objectivity. 

 

" I have drawn the attention of the contractor to the very portion and he has promised to revisit the portion. For now the contractor is concentrating on fixing one lane of the road but would go back to fix the other lane once the work on this lane is completed.

"The governor has asked the contractor to lay extract on the hard core to make it smooth to drive on and we are happy so far for the pace of work. The only setback is that the hard core which the contractor depends on for the remedial work is from Auchi and the bad Benin- Auchi road is slowing down the pace of work due to hold ups as a result of the bad state of that road but we are hopeful that all things being equal, the work should be completed in the next one week and some days 

" I must inform you that we the Ikpoba Hill Youths, residents and every well meaning individuals who ply this route are very happy for the rehabilitation currently on-going and we are also elated because the governor has promised to fix the old Agbor road and other adjourning roads to the federal road".

Also speaking with the Champion Newspaper correspondent at the site, the Contractor with SKAF Construction company, Engineer Omozogie Theophilus said that the Edo state government had contracted SKAF Construction company to facilitate the remedial work on the Benin-Agbor road

According to him, "yes, Edo state government had contracted SKAF Construction company to facilitate the remedial work on the failed portions of the Benin-Agbor road.

 "We have been working for the past two weeks now and you can see we are already at the Bypass and our priority is to quickly finish one side of the road so as to ensure free flow of traffic but we will continue with the other side as soon as we are done with this side of the road because we don't want to be working simultaneously on both sides of the road to avoid traffic congestion because the essence of this work is to allow for free flow of traffic.

" As you can see, we have done about 80 percent of the job and hopefully in another one week and some few days, we would have completed the remedial work on both sides of the road.