Motorists in Imo and Abia have blamed the dilapidated state of roads in the two states of the South-East on many years of neglect and poor maintenance culture by the government at all levels.
A cross-section of the people, who spoke on the development in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), expressed dissatisfaction with the deplorable state of internal roads in the entire zone.
They also said that the poor road condition was impacting deeply and negatively on their businesses and lifespan of their vehicles.
They said that motorists were going through terrible experience in maintaining their vehicles and having to spend their scarce resources at the mechanic workshops and spare parts shops.
A commuter-bus driver in Owerri, Chukwuebuka Ofondu, said the dilapidated state of the roads in the city was negatively affecting his business greatly.
Ofondu claimed that he was always compelled to return to mechanic workshop for one major repair or another due to bad roads.
He said that many years back when the roads were good, he was making enough money to fend for his family “unlike now that the roads are bad”.
Ofondu expressed great pain that he was spending a lot from his meagre returns to maintain his bus in order to be able to remain in business.
He urged the State and Federal Governments to come to their aid by fixing the roads in the state because of the huge impact of the dilapidation on their transport business.
“My brother, you know how expensive things are these days and almost every week I have to repair one part of my vehicle or another because of bad road, coupled with other charges we pay for plying the roads.
“So, as transporters, we go home everyday with little or nothing to take care of our families. Really, we are only managing and struggling to remain in business.
“I am calling on the government at all levels to come and assist us because this is our only legitimate means of earning a living.
A truck driver, Polycarp Ibe, said that with the construction of the Owerri-Orlu and Owerri-Okigwe highways, movement of persons and goods during the Yuletide “will be seamless”.
He, however, called for more work, especially the grading of rural roads to enable the people to easily travel to their villages during the festive season.
Another commercial driver, Ekene Maduka, said that plying the federal roads does not pose as much challenge as the rural and internal roads, “which have practically collapsed”.
He called on the relevant government agencies to carry out palliative repairs on the roads ahead of the Yuletide celebrations
A school Vice Principal, Angela Ubah, also identified dust from bad road as posing serious challenge to the eye.
A rural farmer from Ikeduru Local Government Area, Benjamin Uzondu, said that the construction of rural roads by the state government would enable him to convey his produce to the city for good sales during the Christmas season.
“It’s a different situation this year because some of the roads in my area have been fixed but others remained untouched.
“If the roads can be fixed, it will do us a lot of good this season as it will aid movement of persons and goods,“ Uzondu said.
The Commissioner for Works in the state, Ralph Nwosu, assures motorists and commuters that the State Government would expedite the mass construction of rural roads in the 27 local government areas of the state.
Nwosu said that in the first phase, five-kilometer roads would be constructed in each LGA as part of the State Government’s rural empowerment initiative.
He said that all the necessary contractual agreements had been reached and that work had already begun in some of the locations, despite the rainy season.
According to him, the construction of rural roads, with linking roads to the urban areas, will make Imo a “one city” state, which capital city can be accessed from all parts of the state.
In Abia, some residents have appealed to the State and Federal Governments to fix some important roads in the state to ensure smooth and safe movements of persons and goods during the festive season.
The respondents said that some roads linking Abia with other states needed rehabilitation.
A legal practitioner, Okey Nnamdi, urged the government to ensure the completion of the road leading from Osisioma to Owerrinta and the one from Uratta on Aba Port Harcourt Expressway to Asa.
Nnamdi also appealed to the State Government to award the remaining part of the Ururuka Road for completion from where the past government stopped.
“There should be road engineers and experts employed to work in the state Ministry of Works and they should be properly funded to maintain roads on time or else the roads will keep failing,” he said.
A tanker driver, Matthias Nwabuikwu, appealed to the Federal Government to expedite work on the Aba end of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
He said that the bad portions of the expressway was causing heavy traffic jam and accidents, adding that they should be fixed to ease vehicular movement, especially during the festive period with the associated heavy human and vehicular traffics on the Aba-Port Harcourt highway.
Meanwhile, some tricycle operators in Aba have lauded the efforts of the governor in fixing internal roads in the commercial city.
However, a tricyclist, who plies Asa-Obohia Road, Chika Ojindu, has described the Obohia Road as dilapidated and always causing hold ups.
“At a time, a company was working on the road but later stopped,” Ojindu said.
Another tricycle operator in the area, Amaechi Acha, told NAN that from Eberechi to Ngwa Road had also failed and required urgent attention.
Reacting to the poor state of some federal roads in Abia, the Federal Road Maintenance Engineer, Festus Okafor, said that the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had plans to effectively maintain major federal roads in the state before Christmas “to ease vehicular movement, enhance road safety and reduce traffic congestion”.
Okafor told NAN in Umuahia that the agency had commenced an initiative, known as “Operation Connect to your Destination Programme”, aimed at repairing major federal roads before Christmas.
“Our Managing Director, Dr Chukwuemeka Agbasi, has also launched “operation connect to your destination”, designed to fix “Trunk A” federal roads.
“This is meant to ease movement during Christmas season and Aba-Umuikaa-Owerri Road and some critical federal roads would be attended to,” he said.
Okafor also said that six road maintenance contracts had been awarded to fix critical failures on federal roads in Abia.
He said that FERMA had executed several road maintenance jobs across Abia in 2024 to further fulfill its mandate to ease travel experiences for road users in the state.
He said:” The serious washout at Isieke km 4 +800 and close to Ajata has been reinstated and numerous potholes patched between Km4+000- km 20+000 along Umuahia-Bende-Ohafia Road.
“Also, some roads, like Aba-Azumini, Ohafia-Arochukwu (Atani section) and Uturu-Mile 2 Roads, have received major maintenance this year.”
He explained that bad roads could be caused by either natural or man-made factors.
Okafor said that the natural factors included rains, erosions, accidents, landslides, and aging of the road.
According to him, the man-made factors include inadequate maintenance, use of substandard materials, poor workmanship and supervision during rehabilitation, contact with chemicals, bureaucracy in approval and inadequate funding.
He listed high cost of hiring equipment, unfavourable weather and insecurity as some of the challenges encountered by the agency in the discharge of its duties.
Furthermore, the Acting Project Coordinator of Rural Access, and Agricultural Marketing Projects (RAAMP) in Abia, Mr Donatus Chinyere, said the agency had commenced the rehabilitation of rural roads to improve accessibility in rural communities.
“We just awarded 19.1km Itungwa-Mgboko-Amairi-Amaise-Omoba-Ahiabaubi-Nkwoelechi Road.
The contract was signed on August 5 and it was commissioned for execution on October 2 by Gov. Alex Otti.
“It is still at the starting process and they have started doing the side drains,” Chinyere said.
He said there was an ongoing evaluation process for engagement of contractors to construct 59 Kilometers backlog maintenance road in six lots, which would cut across different LGAs.
He said that the roads include Amaorji-Umuchima-Uratta Road in Isiala Ngwa North LGA, and Nunya Road in Isiukwuato LGA.
He also said that RAAMP had placed adverts in two national dailies for engagement of contractors for the construction of 91.22 kilometers of rural roads
“We will be opening the bid on November 19 in our office to start the evaluation process to engage the contractors and the project is in five lots,” Chinyere said.
He said that plans were being made to either rehabilitate rural roads or execute palliative works on them to make the roads motorable during the Christmas season.
He said that poor design, maintenance and specifications were major causes of bad roads and expressed the resolve of RAAMP to execute rural road projects in line with international best practices.
The respondents prayed that all hands should be on deck to put the roads in sound motorable conditions for smooth movement of holiday makers during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations. (NAN)
