Edo town laments ramshackle link road

OKUGBE—THE people of Okugbe community,
Uromi Kingdom, Esan North East Local
Government Area, Edo State, have bemoaned
the unacceptable condition of the road linking
the village and neighbouring communities.
They said the motorway formerly known as
General Hospital Road, renamed Chief Tony
Anenih Road was very strategic to the
community, as it links it to the state-owned
Government Hospital in the town, Ebhoyi,
Egbele and other communities, but it has
remained decrepit since 2003 when it was
awarded to Messrs Jisaco Nigeria Limited by
the Niger Delta Development Commission,
NDDC, with a 2005 completion date.

Community petitions EFCC: The community in
a petition dated May 1 to the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, copied
the acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and
Managing Director, NDDC, Nsima Ekere,signed
by the chairman, Hon Stephen Irabor, said:
“We thought that within a period of nine
months, the project will be completed, but
unfortunately, we discovered with time that
the contractor has demobilized from site when
construction has not been completed.

Deplorable link road
“But following complaints from our people and
several representations made to the Edo State
office of the NDDC and the Commission’s
Port-Harcourt headquarters, the contractor
would mobilize to site and would disappear
from site after a while. The contractor did a
shoddy work on one side of the road, which
has now become erosion prone and a death
trap. The contract has since been abandoned,”
the people said.

They stated that several representations have
been made to the NDDC headquarters in Port-
Harcourt as well as the state office of the
Commission in Benin on the abandonment of
the road by the contractor with nothing
coming out of such representations.
Demands probe: “Most worrisome and
disheartening is the allegation that this
aforesaid road has been completed and
commissioned and this allegation was
communicated to the NDDC headquarters in
Port-Harcourt since 2009 and there has not
been response from the commission up till
date.

“We are writing you this letter imploring you to
use your good offices to investigate all that
we have highlighted above possibly to bring
the contractor to book or make him to go back
to site to execute or complete the project for
the benefit of the immediate communities and
Nigerians in general,” the community stated.
Commission scrutinizing abandoned projects
NDDC Commissioner, Edo State, Mr. Saturday
Uwuilekhue, was unavailable for comment
when NDV visited his office in Benin City, but a
source said all complaints about abandoned
projects by contractors were being looked into
by the commission and advised Egbele
community to exercise patience.