Benin- Agbor Road Back In Deplorable Condition As Motorists, Commuters Incurre Losses

The Benin- Agbor road, stretching from the Ramat Park axis, down to Charly Auto along Agbor road in Ikpoba Okha local government area of Edo State, is becoming deplorable after the palliative efforts of both the Edo state government and the federal ministry of works in November 2023 and March 2024 respectively 

Recall that the bad situation of the road prompted the Ikpoba Hill Youths to barricade the road for weeks last year to draw the attention of government to the deplorable condition of the road and as a result, the Godwin Obaseki led administration intervened and SKAFF Construction Company did some palliatives around November 2023 and later in March 2024 the Federal government through the Federal Ministry of Works attempted another round of palliative through Sermantec Construction Company limited 

The Chairman of Ikpoba Hill Youths Association Comrade Kingsley Osemwigie who spoke with the press on the worsening situation of the road said he knew it would soon come to this ugly situation considering the showdy job done by the Federal Ministry of Works through Sermantec Construction Company.

According to him " The palliative done by the Federal Ministry of work was poorly executed as you will recall that the purported palliative was done in March this year and after just 5 months, the same road is back in the same deplorable condition. This is just because the repair was badly done by the contractors who handled the job. Though I am not a civil engineer, we the Ikpoba Hill Youths were always with them monitoring the progress of work being done starting from Ahor. I can recall vividly that I drew the attention of the site engineer, Engr Iweka that he is supervising a federal contract and the job was being badly handled but he insistently said that the government did not pay them and as a result they could not do a comprehensive repair work and that is why you see that barely after just 5 months of attempted efforts of repairs by the Federal Ministry of Works, the road is fully back to its initial bad state.

The Youth Chairman who was visibly sad pointed out that he expected that the federal government would do a more quality job of the repairs but that it turned out that the job the federal ministry of works contacted Sermantec to do was done in bad faith.

"When we protested about the unbearable state of the road to draw the attention of the government, the Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki responded by telling Ikpoba Hill Youths that the road was a federal road but we made him to understand that we are his people, that it was Edo state people that voted him into office and that he should listen to our cry and intervene in our plight through a palliative measure which he obliged us and actually did a palliative on the road before the federal government came and said they wanted to do a comprehensive palliative. They came and removed all the initial palliative measures done by the Edo State government and did a showdy job and completely messed up the efforts of the precious palliative measures by the Edo State government.

"You can see all the bad spots which they didn't fix when they came for the palliative work starting from around Sizzlers bus stop down to the the bypass axis. As you go from Ramat to bypass you will see the numerous failed portions which were unattended and those unrepaired portions are the ones causing heavy traffic gridlock, breakdowns and accidents on the road presently.

"As federal government one would have expected a more decent and comprehensive repair job but what did we get, a showdy job done by Sermantec Construction Company who claimed the government didn't pay them and as such they couldn't do a good job. The road was literally covered with failed portions and when the contractor commenced the repair work, we discovered that they were not covering all the failed portions. They will cover some here and leave others here and there. We complained severally to the site engineer Engr Iweka and he kept saying that they would come back to those portions which they never did until they disappeared from the site. Before he abandoned the repair job, he told us that it was the construction company that was just managing to do the much they could do adding that the government has not paid them.

Recently again we saw a signboard of President Tinubu on the road with the inscription that the road has been awarded for repairs but up till this moment nothing is going on and we really don't know what is the situation.

"Go and look at the Ahor area going to Lagos, the flyover, the road is completely right off, just imagine a road purportedly rehabilitated in March this year could be in such a state of disrepair, it simply goes to show a job done in bad faith.

"I pity people doing business along that axis. The other day, a full loaded truck carrying AGO fell as a result of the deplorable condition of the road and emptied its full contents unto the bad road and the owner was weeping. Just imagine the loss people incurre daily due to the bad state of the road. Business men and women, tax players, losing money daily due to the deplorable state of the road.

I can tell you that I am disappointed at our government both the federal and the state government because when you make a promise to your people integrity demands that you fulfill your promise. I wrote a letter to the government and they promised to come and fix this Amufi road promising that they will go and repair the old Benin Agbor road but up till now we don't know what is happening . As I speak now, the percentage of work done on Amufi road is not up to thirty percent. The contractors would come before you know they are gone and they also have work to do on Ohovbe road.

You will recall that when we protested because of the bad condition of the Benin-Agbor road, the Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki promised to fix the old Benin- Agbor road but up till this present moment now nothing has been done 

 He therefore appealed to Edo state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki to intervene and expedite actions aimed at fixing the roads.

"We are therefore appealing to the Edo State governor Mr Godwin Obaseki and the commissioner for road and bridges Engr Uzamere to expedite actions on these roads with a view to having them fixed so as to alleviate the sufferings of the citizens"