By Sunday Egede
Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori has urged the contractor engaged by the Federal Government to rehabilitate the failed portions of the Benin-Asaba highway to speed up work.
Oborevwori, who spoke through the State Commissioner for Works (Rural and Riverine Roads), Mr. Charles Aniagwu, said the plea became necessary following untold hardship the failure of sections of the highway had inflicted on motorists plying the route.
The commissioner, who said this while addressing journalists, yesterday, at Ezenei junction axis of the Asaba-Benin Road, Asaba, said the failed portions on the highway had been a source of concern to the governor.
According to him, the failed portions on the Benin-Asaba highway, particularly the Ezenei Junction had become a source of great concern to the state government.
“Governor Oborevwori has been very much disturbed about it and you may also recall that before now he had asked me to come and see what we can do with a view to making it motorable for our people.
“When we came, we discovered that the job was already under contract by the Federal Government and we discussed then with the contractor and along the line we couldn’t proceed.
“We have continued to mount pressure on the contractor because it is not easy to come and take over something that has already been contracted to somebody else, more so when the project belongs to the Federal Government which has already awarded the contract.
“But Governor Oborevwori had continued to mount pressure to get the Federal Government’s contractor to proceed to site and we can announce to you that we have been able to talk to the Federal Government contractor to leave other areas to come down here.
“He should have been here earlier than now but we discovered that the materials he needed to effect the repairs were stuck along Auchi axis on account of bad roads, hence the trucks ferrying them could not proceed.
“We pleaded with him to take steps to source materials from other areas and good enough, he was able to get other materials from Benin, while he is still awaiting the other materials from Auchi.
“He has also explained that equipment would be deployed once he has enough materials to commence the job,” he added.
Aniagwu appealed to motorists plying the road to be patient while efforts were being made to fix the deplorable sections of it. “We appeal to our people to bear with us; we couldn’t have jumped into this particular road when there is already a contractor who is ready to work but having challenges because of the materials stuck elsewhere.
“We will continue to impress it on the contractor to apply more speed. Good enough you saw the amount of trucks bringing in materials with many others still on the way.
“We hope that by the time this portion of the road is completed, our people will be able to have easy access to the Eastern flank because this is the major road to the East.
“Secondly, it will also safeguard our internal roads because the ones diverting from this corridor to our internal roads will also be checked.
“Once this place is fixed, it will bring back the beauty of this area and we do hope that the contractor engaged by the Federal Government will be able to quickly complete this road to save our people from the agony they are passing through navigating this portion of the road.
“You can see the long stretch of trucks stuck on this particular corridor and that tells you the kind of traffic counts that you have on this axis,” he said
