The placard carrying protesting youths
By Okpokpo Okhumode, Auchi
Youths in Akoko-Edo local government area, weekend protested over what they called the worrisome situation of roads in the area.
The protest which was to draw government attention started from Sagoro/Igbejele axis of the road where the failed portions have turned a nightmare to commuters plying the road.
According to the protesters, they said the bad portions of the road had also made it possible for kidnappers to carry out their criminal activities in the area as some motorists are now afraid of being kidnapped whenever they are traveling.
While carrying placard of various inscriptions such as ‘what are we paying taxes for, Akoko-Edo deserves better roads network, Sarero-Igarrato-Ibilo link road is now a mirage and Iyetoro-Ikpesa road den of kidnappers’ among others was to register their grievances to government and other relevant authorities as they want government to urgently address the situation before it gets out of hands.
According to them, “government should fix the road for us, we are not saying government should give us money, we are tired in Akoko-Edo, we want good roads, we are not asking for too much”.
The leader of the protesters, Victor Arugoyor and others blamed the contractor handling the Igarra/Ibilo road for poor job and slow pace of executing the project and appealed to government to release funds to the contractor to complete the work because the road have become a kidnappers den as a result of its deplorable state.
“We are appealing to the federal government through the comptroller under the ministry of works in Abuja to please facilitate funds to the contractor so that the job can be fast”.
Arugoyor also appealed to the state government saying, yes it is a federal road leading from Edo State to Ondo state but the people living in Akoko-Edo are the governor’s subjects, they are not Abuja citizens.
“I’m appealing to the governor through the ministry of works Hon. Ethel Ozamere who is in charge of roads and bridges in Edo state to please help to reach the governor and all the agencies that has something to do with roads in Edo state to please facilitate the road because the economy and social life of the people have completely cut off”.
He further stated that once its rains, it is possible to move from Igarra to Ibilo and Ibilo to Igarra as if it is a boundary community adding that a journey of three minutes drive now takes two hours and appealed to government to fix the road.
Some of the road users who also joined the protesters however called on the government to quickly fix the road to ease the suffering of the people in the area.
The protesters also registered their grievances to the Otaru of Igarra, Oba Emmanuel Saiki, Adeji 11 to ask for his cooperation with other traditional rulers in the local government area to channel their message to government.
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