On Friday, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo State, demanded that the federal government act quickly to address the state of the crumbling Benin-Auchi-Okpella Road in order to reduce insecurity in the region.
The call was made by the governor following a security meeting at Government House in Benin City with the heads of Edo State’s security agencies.
“The Benin-Auchi-Okpella Road is one of the two issues that were looked at in today’s Security Council Meeting, pressing the federal government to take immediate action to restore the road. The condition of the road is so bad. That road is no longer passable for trucks and other vehicles. In my Independence Day broadcast, I made reference to this.” Obaseki said.
The governor bemoaned the terrible state of the roads, saying, “Petroleum products cannot travel to other parts of the country, especially the North, due to the poor state of the roads. Food items are unable to reach their destination; animals are even dying while traveling on that route because the trucks that are transporting them stay on the roads for days.”
He went on, “The communities along that axis are protesting and refusing to allow these large trucks to pass through their communities because their roads are not built to handle such a vehicle and they fear that the trucks will damage their roads just as much as the federal roads.
We are notifying the nation’s security services that there is a national emergency in Edo and that action must be taken right now to prevent the road from being blocked and the subsequent shortage of food, fuel, and other necessities in that region of the country. The federal government needs to come to Edo State and assist us in fixing our roads because we are facing a national emergency.
