Benin GRA roads remain deplorable as Edo govt promises systematic approach

With the rainy season picking, roads within the Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Benin City, the Edo State capital, remain in deplorable conditions as floods, occasioned by the almost daily rainfalls, make them impassable.

The situation of the roads in the highbrow GRA is compounded by the visible lack of drainage system and the age of some of the roads that were constructed decades ago, with successive governments paying little or no attention to their rehabilitation or outright reconstruction.

This was just as the government of Governor Monday Okpebholo assured that it was on top of the game at fixing the problem with a systematic approach that would ensure a lasting solution to the seemingly intractable problems of the Benin GRA roads.

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Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Paul Ohonbamu, who gave the assurance, added that the state government would adopt a holistic approach to fixing the bad roads and the accompanying flooding problems in the Benin GRA.

Ohinbamu cautioned that any rush to fix roads in the GRA without addressing the real problems would worsen the conditions of the roads.

Commuters and residents of the Benin GRA have been battling with the eyesore that the roads in the area have become.

The matter became worse with the constant downpours experienced in the last two weeks, Benin City being a coastal area and susceptible to flooding.

For instance, Boundary Road towards Adesuwa Grammar School Road has become almost impassable, just as Ihama Road, which ends on the same Adesuwa Grammar School Road, has become almost completely cut off.

The same situation plays out along Giwa Amu Road from the Airport Port Road end, and Gapiona Road, where flood water has formed artificial lakes, subjecting motorists to hardship as they meander through the ponds.

Almost all the roads around Commercial Avenue, where the official lodge of the Deputy Governor is located, the tail end of Gulf Road by the 4th Brigade Headquarters gate, Aiguobaswin Crescent, and the adjoining roads, are filled with potholes.

The Reservation Road that leads to Osadebey Avenue, where the Government House is located, is usually heavily flooded anytime it rains, despite the palliative works carried out recently on the road.

Motorists plying the Benin GRA roads, especially in the evening and close of business, now spend hours navigating through the pothole-infested roads, causing traffic jams as they try to take alternative routes.

To drive through the GRA to connect to the Sapele Road by-pass, a journey that was less than 30 minutes in the past, now takes almost two hours.

Some motorists, who spoke to journalists on the conditions of the roads, blamed contractors for doing shoddy jobs anytime the previous government awarded contracts for repairs of the GRA roads.

Ohonbamu, who spoke in the efforts by the state government to address the issue, reiterated that Governor Okpebholo would not want to do haphazard jobs in the GRA.

“When it is done, we know it is done and not haphazard work. It is going to be holistic,” he reassured.