By Yemi Olajutemu
People of Erio Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State have called on the State and the Federal Governments to look into activities of the contractors handling the road projects in the town, as they fear that the federal road under construction would not last the next three months before imminent collapse because of the shoddy jobs as well as substandard materials used.
The people who gathered to protest the various negative impacts of the bad road on the lives of the inhabitants and other road users coupled with the slow pace of the contractors handling the projects who were alleged of using direct human labour without any machine for the construction, explained that the town had been completely cut off from other towns in the State for the past two months.
They lamented the negative economic impact of the situation of the road saying their farm produce get rotten because there was no means of transportation to urban centres where they had ready markets for them.
According to them, the usual road side businesses had become things of the past while markets have been shut because the road was no longer motorable to travellers.
The President of Erio-Ekiti Development Union (EDU), Elder Akin Adeniji, who led Newsmen on a site seeing to various failed portions and constructions on the federal road, said the town had been completely cut off by the Contractors, a situation which poses security dangers to residents of the town.
He expressed worry over the poor way the contractors had been executing the road projects which has caused a delay, moreso that the contractors had not provided any alternative routes, and were using direct human labour which was making the jobs go at a very slow pace.
Elder Adeniji lamented that the hardship, danger and anxiety caused to the people in the last two months were no longer bearable hence the need for government to quickly salvage the situation.
The EDU National President, who said that the Union had written official letters to the Federal Ministry of works and Housing as well as the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on the matter, appealed to government to quickly rescue the town from fears of insecurity and denial of accessibility.
In his words, Elder Akin Adeniji said,
“As we speak today, Erio-Ekiti is practically cut off from the geographical map of Nigeria. Erio-Ekiti Community is a cul-de-sac and inaccessible. FERMA decided to cut Erio-Ekiti off from the rest of the world all in the name of fixing culverts and constructing drainages instead of executing the projects in phases so that there could be room for vehicular movements.
Erio-Ekiti has been cut off at two spots: one at the Junction of Oke-Opa (before you enter Erio-Ekiti) and the other at Obarabara River on your way to Aramoko-Ekiti.
Currently, no vehicle can enter or leave Erio-Ekiti and that is why we are seriously worried. Again, the poor quality of jobs done on both the culverts as well as the drainages is a threat to the road. It could again collapse within a short spell of time.
Suggestions:
The existing length and breadth of Federal Road in Erio-Ekiti (about Fifteen Kilometers) must be reconstructed. The existing drainages must be linked with the new ones being constructed. The drainages were done on one side whereas the drainage of the other side of the road must be done, too, so as to reinforce the road and make it last for a very long time.
The quality of the jobs done on the culverts and drainages is so shoddy and of substandard. For example, the Contractors used 8mm rods to construct the drainages of a Trunk ‘A’ Road for that matter! You can see for yourselves that the drainages are already peeling because the measure of sand used was greater than cement and we doubt if they can last for six (6) months before collapsing again!
Irokin Stream is not controlled in a way to link with Obarabara River.
There is the need for construction of a new drainage to link Irokin Stream with the newly constructed drainage. If the stream is not controlled, it will always spill its contents on the highway as such the Ministry’ s efforts to put a final stop to incessant collapses of the spot will not be realized.
Summarily, as a trunk “A” Road that links Lagos-Ibadan-Ado-Ekiti to Abuja, the Erio-Ekiti portion of the road must be perfectly fixed so as to avoid incessant collapses.
As the shortest road that links Lagos-Ibadan-Ado-Ekiti to Abuja, Erio-Ekiti road must be perfectly fixed so as to avoid incessant collapses. Erio-Ekiti, as an agrarian town that specializes in production of cocoa, banana plantain, rice, tomatoes, pepper all in large quantities, serves as a major food basket of the nation.
Therefore the farmers need good roads in order to transport the crops/food items to other parts of the country.
We want to draw the attention of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, FERMA and by extension, the Contractors to this very poor jobs execution. We demand that the entire portion of Erio-Ekiti road (which is just about 15 Kilometers) must be reconstructed.
The Vendors must be brought back to cite so as correct the poor jobs they did.
FERMA Officials should insist on maintaining the standards expected of a Trunk “A” road like ours and should not allow the Contractors to spoil their good image. Apart from reconstructing the length and breadth of Erio-Ekiti portion of the road, all the Culverts and Drainages must be done to meet the required standard of a Trunk A road so as to withstand the test of time.”
Other residents of the town who spoke included Chief Eruku, Alhaji Lawal, the Elemikan, Chief Ojo Timothy Funsho and Mr. Akanni Akinjobi aka Onile who explained that since the road had been closed months ago, the negative impacts were much on their economy, health emergencies and education, as school children faced hardship getting to school because the road had been cut off..
They called on government to do a proper Monitoring of the Contractors or revoke the contracts as the job could not be said to be done to specification.
