With the harrowing experience commuters experience on a daily basis while travelling on major federal roads in the South East zone, the senator representing Abia North senatorial district, Mao Ohuabunwa has called for a state of emergency to be declared on the roads.
He made the call while speaking with journalists in Umuahia, saying that Bende-Ohafia-Arochukwu federal road had become “an affliction on the people” while Enugu-Port Harcourt high way, Aba-Ikot Ekpene- Calabar, Enugu-Awka-Onitsha and Umuahia -Ikot Ekpene roads were all in shambles.
The Abia North Senator, had already moved a motion in the Senate calling for urgent action of the federal government. Consequently a resolution mandated a committee headed by Senator Barnabas Gemade to tour the country, starting from Abia North, to determine the current state of the federal roads.
Ohuabunwa lamented that the erosion menace had compounded the state of the roads as several portions had either been cut off or caved in, thereby rendering the roads impassable.
He said that he had been doing all in his power to draw the attention of the relevant federal authorities to the parlous state of the roads, adding that the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), which was expected to do palliative works on the affected roads could not do anything due to the rains.
Ohuabunwa regretted that the Arochukwu-Ohafia road was not captured in the 2015 budget despite the fact that there was a subsisting contract on the road, adding that the present administration of Buhari should take up the construction of the road because government was a continuum. (Thisday)
