The senator representing Edo Central senatorial zone at the National Assembly, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has urged President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on the roads in the area.
The senator made the request on Wednesday in a statement he personally signed.
He said the people of Esanland in Edo Central senatorial district have suffered untold hardships because of the very deplorable conditions of roads across the land.
He said, “I hereby use this medium to appeal to the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to kindly declare state of emergency on all roads in Edo Central Senatorial district of Edo state particularly the Okene-Auchi-Ekpoma-Benin Highway and Ewu-Uromi-Agbor Highway; both of them passing through the heart of Esanland.
“These roads have been awarded for reconstruction and rehabilitation since 2015 but abandoned.
“The senatorial district is the gateway to the South East, South-South, South-West and the Northern part of the country.”
According to him, the deplorable condition of these highways had forced motorists to revert to the internal roads of the communities in Ewu, Irrua, Uromi, Ubiaja, Igueben, Ogwa, Ekpoma and others.
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He said the pressure from the heavy traffic has destroyed all the existing internal roads.
“There is also the bigger fear of an epidemic.
“Animals being conveyed in most of the articulated trucks often get trapped for many days in the gridlock and thereafter die in transit. These dead animals get thrown into the communities along the highways. This is in addition to the perishable goods stocked in vehicles in the gridlocks.
“Business activities in the senatorial district have also highly impacted upon very negatively because of these bad roads. A journey that ordinarily takes one hour now takes several days.
“My people are in pains and want the Federal Government to intervene and come to their rescue.
“I am convinced that only President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can help us out of this situation by fixing the roads, so as to make life bearable again for the entire people of Esanland in Edo central senatorial district, “ he added.
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