Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has disclosed that if the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, had listened to advice given him by road construction engineers, the flood that daily ravages many party of Ugbowo axis of the Benin-Ore expressway would have been consigned to the past.
The PDP candidate faulted the construction of the two service lanes added to the road by the government of Governor Oshiomhole, pointing out that the governor added the service lane to the road in order to deceive the people of the state that it was his government that reconstructed parts of the expressway within the Benin metropolis.
The PDP candidate, who stated this at the weekend during a PDP’s rally held at Adolor Road in Egor Local Government Area of the state, said it was regrettable that a road such as the Adolor Road could be left untouched by the Oshiomhole’s government, assuring that he would prioritize the road if elected into office on Saturday.
“At a time the Federal government was reconstructing the Ugbowo Road, Oshiomhole was campaigning for his second term election. He saw that it could affect his re-election, so he quickly went to the same contractor working on the road and ask them to help him put a lane by the sides of the road.
“He was advised to do the adjoining roads instead of adding a lane by the sides of the road. He, however, declined the advice given him because he wanted to create the impression that he was the one doing the Ugbowo Road.
“He was inspecting the road everyday to create this impression. The money spent on the side lanes he constructed could have done the adjoining roads such as Adolor Road. The so called extra lanes were unnecessary, the design was bad, the consequence is the flooding in the adjoining streets.”
The PDP candidate, who was joined by the Edo State chairman of the PDP at the campaign rally, asked the people of the area to punish the APC and Governor Oshiomhole during the election, pointing out that “they have leveled huge taxes upon you and asking you to vote for continuity.”
In a reaction, however, Edo State Commissioner for Information, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said the problem of flooding on the road was caused by the refusal of the contractors employed by the federal government to put side drains on the road.
He said, “The problem of road in the entire Benin is the absence of drains as there are no primary or secondary drains to empty rain water. How will you say that someone who built a road with side drain is the cause of the problem.
“What we considered was to add additional lane on both sides to ease traffic. When we did our own, we put side drains and informed the federal government contractors working on the road to complement our effort to put side drains but they didn’t do that.”
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