Some leaders of Ibarapa Zone in Oyo State, under the aegis of Concerned Ibarapa Leaders, have sought the intervention of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency over the deplorable state of Abeokuta-Iseyin Road.
The leaders, in a letter dated March 14, 2020 and addressed to Babatunde Fasola, the Minister of Works and Housing, and the FERMA Managing Director, called for total rehabilitation and resurfacing of the road.
The letter, which was jointly signed, was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Among those who signed the letter were Hon. Tunde Adegbenjo, a former member, Oyo State House of Assembly; Chief Theophilus Adenrele; Chief Tunji Fadairo; Chief Lateef Akinsanya; and Katheer Azeez.
Others are Akinyemi Akinlabi, Fatai Adesina and Adeloore Atanda, all former chairmen of Ibarapa Central, Ibarapa North and Ibarapa East Local Government councils respectively.
NAN reports that the 60km Abeokuta-Iseyin Road is a part of the earlier designed Badagry-Sokoto Road, and it spans six local governments in Oyo and Ogun States.
The road was constructed between 1976 and 1979 by the then military administrations of General Muritala Muhammed and General Olusegun Obasanjo, with Strabag Nigeria Plc as the major contractor.
Since the completion of the road over 40 years ago, it has not received any maintenance, resurfacing, repair or rehabilitation.
“Presently, the road has become a death trap for many users. Almost every metre of the road has at least two dangerous potholes. The deplorable condition of the road has made it the workshop of armed robbers and assassins,” the letter said.
The leaders recalled that on January 23, 2020, Alhaji Fatai Yusuff, popularly known as Oko Oloyun, was gruesomely murdered at one of the dark spots on the road.
According to the letter: “Many people have been kidnapped on these dark spots in the past. Apart from this, there had been several accidents, leading to deaths, injuries and deformations of innocent citizens.
“Accidents on this road have also caused several farm produce being transported to cities to be wasted, in addition to having the cost of their haulage and transportation permanently high.”
They sought the intervention of the agency for the complete rehabilitation and resurfacing of the entire road.
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