Motorists Count Losses On Enugu-Awka Expressway

Motorists plying Enugu-Awka expressway have been counting their losses following the dilapidation of some parts of the road.

Our correspodent reports that the road measuring about forty kilometres was constructed by the Shagari administration, and had remained in a dilapidated state for over twenty years.

A truck driver told our correspondent that, “We see hell here. There is no week that at least four trailers will not fall on this road. This occurs more when rains fall as road portions get flooded. It is the worst in this country.”

Another road user, Musa, said, “I was carrying a truckload of dried fish along this road some weeks ago. The truck fell, and everything wasted. The rescue was delayed because it fell on a muddy area.”

A community leader at Amansea, one of the affected communities, Hon Silas Okoh, said, “This road is an eyesore. Amansea has been a forgotten place when rains fall. The Anambra State government hasn’t done anything despite that it is less than two kilometres from the Awka Government House.

“All of Ngige, Obi, Obiano and Soludo turned their eyes on this road because it is a federal road. We are simply dying.”

A survey on the road shows that the Buhari administration has been intervening in some portions of the road, though at a snail’s pace.

A native of Ugwu-Orba, Oji River LGA of Enugu State, where some bad portions of the road affected, said, “We even have to thank Buhari for intervening. No other president did anything here. We simply hear about contracts awarded but no execution.

“We would like Buhari to hasten the work on this expressway. This represents infrastructural abandonment in the South East since after the Biafran War.”

An economist, Nze Monday Onuh, said, “I blame our South-East governors who are insensitive. If the federal government rejects South East, why can’t our governors form a regional infrastructural forum to develop our place?”