For two days running now, commercial activities were grounded along the Benin-Agbor motorway as residents trooped out in their hundreds in protest against the parlous state of the road.
The protesters, mostly residents of Ohovbe community in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, turned the protest into a carnival as they slaughtered a cow over Wednesday night in preparation for the Thursday protest.
To complement the protests, the youths in the locality turned the motorway into a football pitch as both ways were blocked.
The protest, which started on Wednesday, first took its pangs on the citizens of the state on the day of commencement, but the situation grew worse on Thursday as it fell on a market day, thereby forcing the residents in the area to trek a very long distance to their destinations with their loads on their heads, while travellers were left stranded.
Residents of the area were seen playing football on the major road while the other side of the road was blocked with barricades.
Addressing journalists, Mr. Omuobi Abuegwu, a trailer driver who left Lagos, heading to Onitsha, but was stuck in the middle of the protest in Benin, said he was not even sure when he was going to leave the lock jam created as a result of the protest.
“I have been here since 9 a.m. yesterday. I have not even moved an inch. The residents are protesting against the bad road. They want the government to help fix the road.
“As I speak, I have not eaten since. I am coming from Lagos, and I am going to Onitsha.
“My blame goes to the Edo State Government. He was supposed to have provided palliatives on the road because it is now serving as a dead trap. All Edo State roads are bad, including the bypass”, Abuegwu said.
Another driver, Mr. Thankgod Ogucha, said he had been stuck in the holdup for two days.
“I have been here for two days now. The line is not even moving at all. The government should come and fix the bad road. We are suffering. There is no money to buy food to eat”, Ogucha lamented.
A resident of the area, Prince Solomon Nnamdi, warned that the government was pushing the people of the state to their limit.
“It has been a very long time since people have complained. They are pushing people to the limit. So, we are saying that the government should wake up.
“There is money in our country, and there is money in the state. Edo State is an oil-producing state. Apart from that, the IGR can do a lot of things in the state to reduce the suffering of the people.
“You can just sit and see things happen. The government should start somewhere, or at least patch the roads. Even if you don’t want to give us a world-class road, make it motorable so that people can be happy.
“This road condition is affecting food prices at the market. You can see trucks parked here for days. I just saw one Hausa man sleeping under his truck. I then asked him, Why are you sleeping? He said they had been here for two days now, sleeping.
“You can see if such a person has foodstuff that he is trying to deliver to another state, and unfortunately, it becomes a perishable good; that is the end of it.
“The government should come and help us fix the road and if the government fails to do it, the people will rise”, Nnamdi warned
One of the residents who acted as a ‘referee’ as they played football on the major road, Figo Tete, vowed that they would continue to besiege the major road until the state and federal governments fixed the roads.
“The leaders do not want to help fix the road; we decided to turn the road into a football pitch after this match. I will personally go home and get my gas cylinder and prepare Indomie noodles here”, Tete threatened.
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