Despite Fashola’s Promises, Ogoni Portion of East-West Road Remains Death Trap
Even with promises by the federal government, that the Ogoni portion of the East-West Road will be fixed in no time, the road has remained a death trap.
This is coming weeks after the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, had assured the chairman of Eleme Local Government, Chief Obarilomate Ollor, that the federal government was ready to fix15 kilometres of the bad portion of the road.
Fashola was quoted by the Eleme Council to have said that there more prospects for the East-West road despite the delay in the commencement of work and that the federal government was now committed to ensure that work on the road commence as soon as possible.
According to Ollor, the minister was said to have stated this when he met the minister and the Managing Director/CEO of RCC Nigeria Limited, Nader Yusuf in Abuja over the daily casualties recorded on the deplorable condition of the road.
A statement by Onugweonwi Ate Chinwi, press secretary to the chairman, Eleme local government area quoted the federal government as also saying that reviews on the project had been done to include 15 kilometres drainage on both sides of the road and addition of more lanes.
He said the minister had expressed hope that Federal Executive Council would make necessary approvals for the work to commence. According to him “the necessary paperworks are ready and will be presented to the Federal Executive Council for approval so that the contractor can move to site for both palliative and full scale work to commence respectively”
Ollor had earlier expressed disappointment over the negligence on the part of the federal government and the lingering uncertainties surrounding the commencement of work on the dilapidated section of the East-West road.
The chairman questioned why a significant project of that magnitude was still being delayed after it was transferred from Niger Delta Ministry to Ministry of works and also the recent directive by President Buhari assigning funding of the project to NNPC.
It could be recalled that a trailer loaded with containers allegedly failed break at the weekend to hit two vehicles into the river at Aleto bridge with one person said to have died, while several others sustained injuries ,a development that resulted diversion of vehicles through Oyigbo local government to Port Harcourt and out of Port Harcourt.
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