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Tag: roads

  • Community bemoans poor roads

    Community bemoans poor roads

    With vast fertile land and other resources, Obeagu-Isu, a remote community in Onicha Local Government Area is of Ebonyi State should be brimming with happy residents. Far from it. Its farmers have a handsome share in the state’s palm oil, rice, cassava and yam market. The sore point is its poor roads, which have virtually cut off Obeagu-Isu from other communities.

    Speaking with The Nation, the interim chairman of the council of chiefs of the Isu community, Chief Gabriel Ani, popularly referred to as Mallam Gab, said bad roads have been their major headache.

    “It is very unfortunate to state that the issue of development is an illusion to us,” he said. “In fact, we have nothing like development. Our roads are very bad and this is the major setback we have as a community towards development. For instance, in this rainy season even up till December, most Vehicles cannot ply our roads due to its bad state.”

    Also speaking, a resident of the community, Mr Odim Nwaguma decried the impassable roads. He noted that the road that links the community to the Nkwo-Agu Central Market, situated close to the local government secretariat was constructed in 1979 during the Mbakwe administration in the then Imo State but without repairs or any kind of maintenance, they are in deplorable condition.

    “Driving from Nkwo-Agu to Obeagu-Isu is like getting yourself immersed in dust due to the bad state of the road. In fact, my car got stuck at a point and developed faults which I had to repair. Besides, this particular road that links Nkwo-Agu to Obeagu-Isu is a federal government road constructed in 1979 during the Mbadiwe administration. Then, I was ten years old and till now it has not received any form of attention or maintenance from the government. I’m in my fifties now, so you can do the Mathematics yourself.”

    Another resident, Mrs. Cecilia Njoku stated that the villagers are used to the nature of the roads. She said sometimes, the women walk to Nkwo-Agu, which is about 100 miles from the village to sell their farm produce. Other times, they are left at the ‘mercies’ of the drivers of the ‘slow and steady’ pick-up vans who take them and their goods to the market at the cost of N300.

    Our correspondents, who visited the community, gathered that it could only boast of a small government clinic that is in a deplorable condition, few boreholes dug by the government, dilapidated primary and secondary schools built by the community. Electricity supply is poor.

    Buttressing this fact, Chief Ani decried the government’s inability to provide basic social amenities for the community, lamenting that some villagers had lost their lives on the bad roads.

    “The only infrastructure put in place so far by the government is boreholes and a small clinic housed by a community hall in Orie-Agu in the whole of Obeagu-Isu. I even call it a ‘half clinic’. My house is the first concrete building in Obeagu-Isu. Electric poles were erected from Orie-Agu down to my house even before 1998. The poles have been here and falling.

    “The ones connected to my house have no wires and have been turned to firewood for cooking. The facilities in the schools are not adequate for teaching the children. It is a pathetic situation in this community and we are terribly in the dark,” he moaned.

    It was gathered that the community fought a war over the Ojiegbekwe land with the Ezza community that ended in 2008, lasting for 97 years. So while other communities were forging ahead politically, the people were involved in a war which drastically reduced their economic and human resources, thereby, making them politically dominated in government.

    While lamenting on the inability of the people to transport their resources like palm oil, rice, cassava, yam and wood to neighbouring towns and cities for sale to generate income for community projects, Chief Ani noted that he intends organising few elites in the community to see the governor of the state to appeal for the people’s representation in political positions at the state level.

    The residents appealed to federal and state governments to come to their aid.

  • Cattle take over major roads

    Residents bemoan cattle grazing menace, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU

    Mr. John Ayooba who lives in Kuje, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), told Abuja Review that the city’s challenges brought on by its population growth have been worsened by grazing activities, with cattle obstructing vehicular and pedestrian movement.

    He said: “It is becoming terrible, almost every day when I pass from Kuje to town, I come across cows obstructing the major highway and when you call the attention of the owners to control them to avoid accident or damage to property, they don’t listen. Abuja is becoming something else and government should do something urgently before the situation gets out of hand.”

    A government source said that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) took measures in the past to curb cattle grazing, but its efforts amounted to little more than verbal warnings to herdsmen to refrain from improper grazing activities along major highways.

    Another resident Tolu Abinbola said that the illegal grazing of cattle by herdsmen is just one of several problems facing Abuja, including the prevalence of street hawkers, unemployed youths, and “street urchins” which have “taken over every nook and cranny of the city.

    “I have observed how cattle and other livestock have now taken over the city centre of Abuja and I have really fallen short of words. It is not only degrading, but the distortion of the Abuja master plan also gives me a cause for concern.

    “I am neither a soothsayer nor a doomsday prophet, but public reaction to this unfortunate prowling of animals may not be good for the image of the FCT Minister, Alhaji Mohammad Bello, who appears to be doing nothing about this apparent contravention of the Abuja environmental laws.

    “The activities of Fulani herdsmen within Abuja city centre are just inappropriate. For cows to be allowed to roam the city and compete for space with human beings is retrogressive and causes serious health and social crises in the hinterland where they eat up crops, pollute streams, rivers and other sources of water supply in the satellite towns and villages and cause deaths on the highways.”

    Ibrahim, a civil servant who lives in Kubwa, said, “From Kuje to Abaji and from Maitama to the presidential villa and highbrow Asokoro, Fulani herdsmen and their cattle are constantly fighting for space with motorists and pedestrians. The National Assembly, right to the office of the National Security Adviser are not spared by the herdsmen and their cattle. The herdsmen graze their cattle at the traffic junctions where police halt vehicles for upwards of 30 miniutes or completely block the road for cattle to cross to the other side of the road.

    “While we cannot run away from these cows that are a veritable source of protein that nurtures our health and bodies, they should be raised in a civilised manner. Distraught residents are sick and tired of the unprecedented ubiquity of herdsmen walking their cattle on the roads. The man-hour lost in hold-ups cannot be economically verified, but the psycho-social trauma of accidents, caused like the one on the Abuja-Lokoja expressway should move any government to action.

    “I suggest as a matter of urgent national importance that the FCT minister should quickly do something before things get worse. He must hasten to create and demarcate grazing reserves and cattle ranches to control the movement of the herdsmen seeking pasture for their livestock in the FCT and not necessarily in the city centre. We also advise that it has become expedient to constitute a committee consisting of all tribes that would campaign on the importance of unity and peaceful coexistence, because the silence of the people is like that of peace that exists in the graveyard. We are sitting on a keg of gunpowder if we allow cattle to disturb traffic, deface the streets and enter people’s premises. The time to act is now.”

    It would be recalled that few weeks ago the Federal Government on its part said it has concluded plans to build ranches for herdsmen as part of measures to address the perennial herdsmen/farmers clashes which had claimed hundreds of lives in the country.

    The government also said it would train park rangers, men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and other security agencies to protect farms and other agro-business from looting by hoodlums.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh said this at the inauguration of an Inter-ministerial Committee on Security in Ministries of Agric and Interior.

    The minister explained that the nation is facing challenging times, noting that the government was concerned about protection for investments.

    He stated that the government was looking at ways to curb herdsmen and crop farmers clashes across the country by evolving solutions that would assure indigenous and foreign investors of the security of their investments.

    Ogbeh noted that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to developing and expanding the economy, and the protection of investment.

    He said, “The current problem we are facing is the security of investment. We are inviting people, Nigerians and foreigners alike to invest in this country, especially in the agriculture industry. The crime rate is soaring and sometimes, criminality is carried out because there is no credible intelligence.

    “We are planning now to build ranches and bring our cattle rearers in manageable conditions where herdsmen and farmers would no longer have clashes. We are going to encourage agro investment. We assure indigenous investors, foreign investors that Nigeria is serious about investment and about protecting investors.

    “Nigeria can’t afford the looting of private investment by hoodlums who think that is their share of the national treasury.”

    The minister stated that the committee was expected to work out the modalities for the training and deployment of the security personnel that would be involved in investment and infrastructure protection across the country.

    He however cautioned that when deployed, the security operatives should not be converted to duties other than what they were trained for.

    “The security officers are not to be converted to private body guards or errand boys to be sent to the market or shopping malls,” Ogbeh warned.

     

     

     

     

  • Cattle take over major roads

    Residents bemoan cattle grazing menace, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU

    Mr. John Ayooba who lives in Kuje, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), told Abuja Review that the city’s challenges brought on by its population growth have been worsened by grazing activities, with cattle obstructing vehicular and pedestrian movement.

    He said, “It is becoming terrible, almost every day when I pass from Kuje to town I come across cows obstructing the major highway and when you call the attention of the owners to control them to avoid accident or damage to property they don’t listen. Abuja is becoming something else and government should do something urgently before the situation gets out of hand.”

    A government source said that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) took measures in the past to curb cattle grazing but its efforts amounted to little more than verbal warnings to herdsmen to refrain from improper grazing activities along major highways.

    Another resident Tolu Abinbola said that the illegal grazing of cattle by herdsmen is just one of several problems facing Abuja, including the prevalence of street hawkers, unemployed youths, and “street urchins” which have “taken over every nook and cranny of the city.

    “I have observed how cattle and other livestock have now taken over the city centre of Abuja and I have really fallen short of words. It is not only degrading, but the distortion of the Abuja master plan also gives me a cause for concern.

    “I am neither a soothsayer nor a doomsday prophet, but public reaction to this unfortunate prowling of animals may not be good for the image of the FCT minister, Alhaji Mohammad Bello, who appears to be doing nothing about this apparent contravention of the Abuja environmental laws.

    “The activities of Fulani herdsmen within Abuja city centre are just inappropriate. For cows to be allowed to roam the city and compete for space with human beings is retrogressive and causes serious health and social crises in the hinterland where they eat up crops, pollute streams, rivers and other sources of water supply in the satellite towns and villages and cause deaths on the highways.”

    Ibrahim, a civil servant who lives in Kubwa, said, “From Kuje to Abaji and from Maitama to the presidential villa and highbrow Asokoro, Fulani herdsmen and their cattle are constantly fighting for space with motorists and pedestrians. The National Assembly, right to the office of the National Security Adviser are not spared by the herdsmen and their cattle. The herdsmen graze their cattle at the traffic junctions where police halt vehicles for upwards of 30 miniutes or completely block the road for cattle to cross to the other side of the road.

    “While we cannot run away from these cows that are a veritable source of protein that nurtures our health and bodies, they should be raised in a civilised manner. Distraught residents are sick and tired of the unprecedented ubiquity of herdsmen walking their cattle on the roads. The man-hour lost in hold-ups cannot be economically verified, but the psycho-social trauma of accidents, caused like the one on the Abuja-Lokoja expressway should move any government to action.

    “I suggest as a matter of urgent national importance that the FCT minister should quickly do something before things get worse. He must hasten to create and demarcate grazing reserves and cattle ranches to control the movement of the herdsmen seeking pasture for their livestock in the FCT and not necessarily in the city centre. We also advise that it has become expedient to constitute a committee consisting of all tribes that would campaign on the importance of unity and peaceful coexistence, because the silence of the people is like that of peace that exists in the graveyard. We are sitting on a keg of gunpowder if we allow cattle to disturb traffic, deface the streets and enter people’s premises. The time to act is now.”

    It would be recalled that few weeks ago the Federal Government on its part said it has concluded plans to build ranches for herdsmen as part of measures to address the perennial herdsmen/farmers clashes which had claimed hundreds of lives in the country.

    The government also said it would train park rangers, men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and other security agencies to protect farms and other agro-business from looting by hoodlums.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh said this at the inauguration of an Inter-ministerial Committee on Security in Ministries of Agric and Interior.

    The minister explained that the nation is facing challenging times, noting that the government was concerned about protection for investments.

    He stated that the government was looking at ways to curb herdsmen and crop farmers clashes across the country by evolving solutions that would assure indigenous and foreign investors of the security of their investments.

    Ogbeh noted that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to developing and expanding the economy, and the protection of investment.

    He said, “The current problem we are facing is the security of investment. We are inviting people, Nigerians and foreigners alike to invest in this country, especially in the agriculture industry. The crime rate is soaring and sometimes, criminality is carried out because there is no credible intelligence.

    “We are planning now to build ranches and bring our cattle rearers in manageable conditions where herdsmen and farmers would no longer have clashes. We are going to encourage agro investment. We assure indigenous investors, foreign investors that Nigeria is serious about investment and about protecting investors.

    “Nigeria can’t afford the looting of private investment by hoodlums who think that is their share of the national treasury.”

    The minister stated that the committee was expected to work out the modalities for the training and deployment of the security personnel that would be involved in investment and infrastructure protection across the country.

    He however cautioned that when deployed, the security operatives should not be converted to duties other than what they were trained for.

    “The security officers are not to be converted to private body guards or errand boys to be sent to the market or shopping malls,” Ogbeh warned.

  • Cattle take over major roads

    Cattle take over major roads

    Residents bemoan cattle grazing menace, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU 

    Mr. John Ayooba who lives in Kuje, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), told Abuja Review that the city’s challenges brought on by its population growth have been worsened by grazing activities, with cattle obstructing vehicular and pedestrian movement.

    He said, “It is becoming terrible, almost every day when I pass from Kuje to town I come across cows obstructing the major highway and when you call the attention of the owners to control them to avoid accident or damage to property they don’t listen. Abuja is becoming something else and government should do something urgently before the situation gets out of hand.”

    A government source said that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) took measures in the past to curb cattle grazing but its efforts amounted to little more than verbal warnings to herdsmen to refrain from improper grazing activities along major highways.

    Another resident Tolu Abinbola said that the illegal grazing of cattle by herdsmen is just one of several problems facing Abuja, including the prevalence of street hawkers, unemployed youths, and “street urchins” which have “taken over every nook and cranny of the city.

    “I have observed how cattle and other livestock have now taken over the city centre of Abuja and I have really fallen short of words. It is not only degrading, but the distortion of the Abuja master plan also gives me a cause for concern.

    “I am neither a soothsayer nor a doomsday prophet, but public reaction to this unfortunate prowling of animals may not be good for the image of the FCT minister, Alhaji Mohammad Bello, who appears to be doing nothing about this apparent contravention of the Abuja environmental laws.

    “The activities of Fulani herdsmen within Abuja city centre are just inappropriate. For cows to be allowed to roam the city and compete for space with human beings is retrogressive and causes serious health and social crises in the hinterland where they eat up crops, pollute streams, rivers and other sources of water supply in the satellite towns and villages and cause deaths on the highways.”

    Ibrahim, a civil servant who lives in Kubwa, said, “From Kuje to Abaji and from Maitama to the presidential villa and highbrow Asokoro, Fulani herdsmen and their cattle are constantly fighting for space with motorists and pedestrians. The National Assembly, right to the office of the National Security Adviser are not spared by the herdsmen and their cattle. The herdsmen graze their cattle at the traffic junctions where police halt vehicles for upwards of 30 miniutes or completely block the road for cattle to cross to the other side of the road.

    “While we cannot run away from these cows that are a veritable source of protein that nurtures our health and bodies, they should be raised in a civilised manner. Distraught residents are sick and tired of the unprecedented ubiquity of herdsmen walking their cattle on the roads. The man-hour lost in hold-ups cannot be economically verified, but the psycho-social trauma of accidents, caused like the one on the Abuja-Lokoja expressway should move any government to action.

    “I suggest as a matter of urgent national importance that the FCT minister should quickly do something before things get worse. He must hasten to create and demarcate grazing reserves and cattle ranches to control the movement of the herdsmen seeking pasture for their livestock in the FCT and not necessarily in the city centre. We also advise that it has become expedient to constitute a committee consisting of all tribes that would campaign on the importance of unity and peaceful coexistence, because the silence of the people is like that of peace that exists in the graveyard. We are sitting on a keg of gunpowder if we allow cattle to disturb traffic, deface the streets and enter people’s premises. The time to act is now.”

    It would be recalled that few weeks ago the Federal Government on its part said it has concluded plans to build ranches for herdsmen as part of measures to address the perennial herdsmen/farmers clashes which had claimed hundreds of lives in the country.

    The government also said it would train park rangers, men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and other security agencies to protect farms and other agro-business from looting by hoodlums.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh said this at the inauguration of an Inter-ministerial Committee on Security in Ministries of Agric and Interior.

    The minister explained that the nation is facing challenging times, noting that the government was concerned about protection for investments.

    He stated that the government was looking at ways to curb herdsmen and crop farmers clashes across the country by evolving solutions that would assure indigenous and foreign investors of the security of their investments.

    Ogbeh noted that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to developing and expanding the economy, and the protection of investment.

    He said, “The current problem we are facing is the security of investment. We are inviting people, Nigerians and foreigners alike to invest in this country, especially in the agriculture industry. The crime rate is soaring and sometimes, criminality is carried out because there is no credible intelligence.

    “We are planning now to build ranches and bring our cattle rearers in manageable conditions where herdsmen and farmers would no longer have clashes. We are going to encourage agro investment. We assure indigenous investors, foreign investors that Nigeria is serious about investment and about protecting investors.

    “Nigeria can’t afford the looting of private investment by hoodlums who think that is their share of the national treasury.”

    The minister stated that the committee was expected to work out the modalities for the training and deployment of the security personnel that would be involved in investment and infrastructure protection across the country.

    He however cautioned that when deployed, the security operatives should not be converted to duties other than what they were trained for.

    “The security officers are not to be converted to private body guards or errand boys to be sent to the market or shopping malls,” Ogbeh warned.

  • Fix our roads, communities beg Fed Govt, Lagos

    Residents of Igbo-Efon, Ogombo,Okun-Ajah, Okun-Alfa, Lafiaji, Mopol and Mopol-Iwaju communities of Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State have appealed to the state government to repair their roads.

    Akogun of Awori land and the Managing Director of Atican Beach Resort, Prince Atiku Abogun, urged the Federal, and state governments to construct the proposed service road that would open up the coastal towns.

    Abogun said: “The two tiers of government have refused to do anything. They are only interested in forcefully taking over our ancestral land and share it among themselves. We need good roads for the communities to be opened up. As a people, we have done everything for them to come to our aid.”

    In similar vein, the prince of Igbo-Efon bemoaned the neglect the communities are suffering, while noting that, “the current crop of leadership does not believe that human beings are living in these areas. They have been working on the Lekki-Epe Expressway expansion for more than ten years now, but it took the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande just a little over four years to construct the same road in the early 80s.”

    He explained that “right from the Abraham Adesanya Estate to the sea is always flooded whenever there is a slight shower not to talk of when it rain heavily. The rains have continued to wreak havoc in the Ajah area of the state, making any form of movement difficult.”

    The Akogun of Awori land suggested that the state government should channel the flood water to the nearby sea. He said: “With all the down pour in Lagos, the government channel some of the flood to the Lagoon and sea. This will help mitigate the hardship that had crippled business activities. Our roads have become River Niger to the extent that flood is now living with us in our homes.

  • Roads: The next nightmare

    Roads: The next nightmare

    After the weakening of Boko Haram whose fighters devastated the Northeast, residents of the region have another nightmare before them: damaged roads. Roads across the region are so bad that some states are in danger of being cut off from others. Gombe, in the heart of region, is one such state. Its roads are dilapidated, bridges failing.

    Some of those bad roads include  Gombe-Bauchi; Gombe-Biu; Gombe-Dukku-Darazo; Gombe-Potiskum and Gombe-Numan-Yola, among other roads.

    As population and human activities grow, so is the volume of running water on culverts, threatening and ultimately washing out the roads.

    Potholes are another worry.

    The Gombe-Numan-Yola Road is a known disaster. It is presently receiving attention. But how far the rehabilitation will go is what no one can tell because the one done three years ago stopped at Kaltungo.

    The most notorious bad spot is Km 34/200 on Gombe-Bauchi Road. Commuters have been crying out to the government for remedy. They say the road, which links Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, Taraba and Yobe states is on the verge of collapse.

    Motorists who spoke with The Nation described the road as a death trap. Now that the rains are here, the commuters have appealed to the federal and Northeast state governments to find a permanent solution to it.

    Km 34/200 lies between Bauchi and Gombe states and travellers to most other parts of the northeast use it regularly.

    For over four years now, this spot has remained a major threat to lives and property as a result of the rains and attendant erosion, which have swept the grounds and structures that hold the road together.

    In the rainy season, people are forced to wait for hours on either end whenever there is downpour or take the longer routes to their destinations. This automatically means paying extra money, extra fuel and extra hours.

    At the moment, both the retaining wall built to break the speed of water and heavy stones used to reclaim previously washed out portions are now being washed out. The NNPC pipelines around the area are exposed and may soon give way.

    “Do you know I spent the whole day there because we had to wait for the flood to recede before crossing, ” said Hajara Usman, who rushed to her home state Bauchi intending to return the following morning to Gombe where she worked in the civil service.

    Sometimes commercial commuters’ vehicle drivers truncate their journeys on either side of the bad spot and end up exchanging passengers across the spot, which becomes inaccessible when the rains are at their peak.

    Abubakar Yahaya Bula, a motorist, said he had been plying the road for the past four years and had known the spot to be like that.

    “Between God and man,” he said, “anytime it rains heavily, this place becomes a mini-motor park because we will drop our passengers, they will trek cautiously to the other side to join Bauchi vehicles; theirs too will in the same manner come and join ours to get to Gombe.

    “We thought the road would be repaired this last dry season, but it was not.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Bindow: I completed 46 roads in one year

    Bindow: I completed 46 roads in one year

    Forty-six roads in Adamawa State were completed in one year, Governor Jibrilla Bindow, has said.

    Bindow spoke yesterday during the Eid-el-Fitr celebration in the Government House in Yola. “The government will embark on massive road construction outside the state capital, while the Kiri-Shelleng road will be launched after Sallah.

    “The people should support the government with prayers and words of encouragement to enable this administration achieve its mandate. Within one year in office, we have completed 46 road projects. The challenge is enormous due to the economic crisis but we thank God for giving us the wisdom to achieve this feat,” he said.

    Speaker of the House of Assembly, Alhaji Kabiru Mijinyawa, hailed Bindow for his transparency and probity. He praised him for the development he made in his one year in office, and reiterated the legislature’s commitment to work with the executive to achieve the vision of the administration.

  • Abia community laments poor roads

    Members of the Nzuko Arochukwu town in Abia State have decried the state of the Okobo Arochukwu -Abam Road that connects the area with other parts of the state.

    Worried by the huge economic, social and other losses the community has suffered because of the  deplorable state of  the road, the Lagos branch of the group gathered last week at NENIV Events and Conference Centre, Airport Road, Lagos, to proffer solution to the state of the road which they said has turned  them to outcasts in their fatherland.

    They moved to raise N5million to give a face lift to the road to alleviate the sufferings of their kinsmen.

    Bemoaning the plight of their people, the Second Vice President, Mazi Nwosu Nwaka said: “Anybody who knows our location knows very well that it is an abandoned community. The government of today, the government of yesterday have actually abandoned us. Since after the war, Arochukwu has not had any road constructed into that town. As we speak right now, the town has been totally cut off  and that is why we have decided to take the bulls by the horn.  Since the government cannot help us we want to help ourselves. We believe that maybe when the government sees what we are doing they may probably know that they have actually failed us in terms of infrastructure and come to our aid. We are endangered species when it comes to infrastructure in Abia State.

    The First Vice President General, Sir Dozie Udensi said: “What we are trying to do is is to save our people from being cut off entirely from the rest of Abia state and Nigeria. We are not trying to build government road but we trying to put some palliative measures so that our people  can have access to our ancestral home. The government of the day, both at the state and federal level has made us to understand that the economy has dwindled and the implementation of budget very slow. We cannot wait indefinitely for them especially now that the rains are coming heavily. As the newly elected executives, we think it incumbent on us to give palliative measures to the road.

    “We are only trying to cover those bad sides of the road with laterite to make it motor able so that people can pass easily. People have already been cut off entirely from umuahia ohafia and so on. We are looking at completing the project by the end of June or July we will be ready. By June ending the people should to be able to pass through the road. We are setting September deadline because it is when our people will be massively going home to celebrate the new yam festival. We are already making plans to reach out to all our people both at home and in diaspora for their support. One thing that is certain is that we are going to make judicious use of every money we get.”

    He added: “We are also trying to create avenue for our youths to have employment. We are putting in place various skills acquisition programmes for them to remove their mind from unproductive ventures. We are creating a database to be able to know those that who are qualified for one thing or the other. Those who have not gone to school we will be able to provide some skill acquisition so that they can be gainfully employed.”

  • Ondo communities decry poor state of roads

    Community leaders in the four local government areas of Akoko land, especially Ikare- Akoko, headquarters of Akoko North East Local Government Area of Ondo State have urged the Federal and the state governments to rehabilitate the deplorable roads in their communities.
    The community leaders conducted reporters round some of the roads which they said had been hindering economic activities and affected smooth movement of goods and prevented commuters in Akoko land from travelling at will.
    They pleaded that the roads be fixed immediately to enable the residents of the communities to enjoy the dividends of democracy.
    Speaking through the Owa Ale of Ikare land, Oba Samuel Kolapo Adegbite Adedoyin, the aggrieved residents listed the Owo-Ikare highway which is a Federal Government road.
    The monarch said: “The Owo-Ikare road is now a death trap for travellers. The importance of the road cannot be over-emphasised considering the fact that it links the nation’s federal capital, the northern and eastern parts of the country.
    “Also, the Owo-Ikare Road is also economically important to Ikare and Akoko people, in the sense that they evacuate their agricultural produce to the cities through the road.”
    The monarch appealed to the Federal Government to prioritise the Owo-Ikare Federal road to boost the economy of the area and prevent incessant accidents on the road.
    He also urged the Ondo State government to fulfil some of its electoral promises for Ikare and the entire Akoko land.
    Also speaking, Olotu Omolola, Alhaji Momoh Aliyu Ogunyen and Chief Ahmed Ohunjugbagbe, appealed to Governor Olusegun Mimiko to assist in rehabilitating the deplorable Awara Road which is very important to the Ikare community as the road links many Ikare farmlands.
    The community leaders jointly drew the state government’s attention to its promise to make Ikare-Akoko township road a dual carriage way such as that of Akure.
    They also solicited for the reticulation of Awara Dam to enhance distribution of potable water to Ikare and the four local government areas of Akoko land.

  • Residents seek repair of ‘bad’ roads

    Residents seek repair of ‘bad’ roads

    SOME residents of Ijede in Ikorodu, Egbeda/Ikotun and Iyana Ipaja, have urged Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to fix their roads to save them from the menace of flood.

    A resident, Mr Joseph Awojulu, said they woke up on Wednesday to find their homes flooded because of the blocked drainage.

    He said: “Most residents were trapped in their homes while others had to scoop water from their fences as the heavens opened up, to avert being submerged”.

    Awojulu blamed the severe flooding on poor drainage and blocked channels on Mayflower Circle Road.

    According to him, flooding on Mayflower Circle Road and Beatrice Awojolu Street was a direct consequence of the Ijede Road drainage, which did not flow.

    “We want Governor Ambode to plead with the contractors handling the road construction to clean up the blocked drainage before rain destroys people’s property,” he said.

    He said the execution of the project had been slow, adding that the contractor should fast track the construction.

    “The road project has dragged for too long compared to those constructed in other parts of Lagos State. So, we are calling on the state government to do something fast to save lives and property,” Awojulu said.

    He said the overflow coming from Ijede Road broke some fences when the drainage could not contain its flow.

    “Many vehicles could not ply the road for hours because of the flood, which stretched to other neighbourhoods,” Awojulu said.

    Their Egbeda/Ikotun and Iyana Ipaja counterparts also appealed similar to the government to tackle the drainage problem in their areas.

    Mr Chukwudi James berated the government for allowing a section of the road to cave in.

    Kennedy Aderibigbe urged the government to work on the drainage to ease the flow of traffic.

    Lagos State Public Works General Manager Ayo Shodeinde said he was in charge of roads and not the environment, when he was contacted.