The Senator representing the Rivers South East senatorial district in the National Assembly, Magnus Abe says the poor state of the East West road is receiving the attention of relevant authorities.
In a chat with journalists, Abe said he had met with relevant stakeholders on the need to address the collapsed Akpajo bridge and called on the people of the South South region to sustain their support for the Muhammadu Buhari led federal government.
“As chairman of the Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, as we speak now a major bridge on my senatorial district along the east West Road has collapsed and people are spending days on gridlock on that road.
The Eleme-Onne axis of the East West road which the Ministry of Niger Delta has not been able to reconstruct has been a source of huge nightmare to motorists and natives of Eleme, Ogoni and part of Akwa-Ibom areas as they spend several hours on traffic to pass through that spot, with many accidents and three deaths already recorded on the spot.
In June it had to take the threat by tanker drivers under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) to embark on industrial action to force the NDDC to intervene in the repair of the Eleme Junction-Akpajo axis of that road which had totally failed then.
Work on that section of the road is still ongoing when sometime last week the Eleme bridge collapsed totally cutting off the Eleme-Akwa Ibom users of the road from other parts of Rivers State.
But speaking on the road, Sen Abe said; “I have spoken to the management of FERMA and again to the management of the NDDC and as we speak now, they are meeting to find areas of collaboration to try to remedy that bridge so that life can be made easier wherever challenges arise”.
On the issue of the prolonged absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from and the consequent protests, the two time senator said; “I think Nigerians should have confidence in this present administration, they should have confidence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that our direction is clear. The current issues, like you saw the demonstrations and other things, are normal with the practice of democracy.
The President by writing to the National Assembly and handling over to the Vice President have met every constitutional requirement in handling the current situation and so the country is on course and what we need is the support and understanding of Nigerians in order to move the country forward”.
And in a related development, the Movement For the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) as described as unacceptable the state of the East west Road. Legborsi Piagbara, President of MOSOP said in Port Harcourt that the poor state of the road has brought untold hardship to Ogonis plying the road and called on the federal government to urgently provide solution on the road.
The MOSOP President stated “it is quite unfortunate that even in this twenty first century we are still seeing a deliberate and continued attempt to marginalize the Ogoni people. He contended that the state of the road did not happen overnight and neither by accident.
It is the gateway to the Ogoni economy and once that road breaks down it means the entire Ogoni economy is also going to break down. Transportation is very very important to any business and once transportation collapses its businesses will also collapse”.
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