DISASTER: Reps call for Urgent need to fix bad Roads in Nigeria
Njideka Ozoalor
The House of Representatives in Nigeria has on Wednesday called on the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to urgently carry out emergency repairs of failed portions of federal highways in the country which has increased the difficulty being experienced by motorists and other road users.
This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance on the need to avert a humanitarian and security crisis due to the conditions of the Onitsha-Owerri, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Onitsha federal highways by Hon Toby Okechukwu and 79 others and amended by the Majority Whip, Hon. Mohammed Tahir Monguno to cover all Federation Highways across the country following several requests by members on the deplorable conditions of Federal Roads in their constituencies.
The House called for the investigation of the failure of strategic portions of the Enugu-Port Harcourt highway while rehabilitation work was still ongoing by the contractor.
It also called for the investigation of the abandonment of the rehabilitation of Enugu-Onitsha Expressway which had led to the gory condition of the Amansea section of the expressway.
The House noted that a gully which suddenly emerged on the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway around Oraifute, Ekwusigo Local Government Area, Anambra State, had cut the expressway into two parts leading to the entrapment of a fuel tanker laden with diesel.
The House said that it was aware that it took the intervention of the personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), to ensure that the contents of the trapped tanker were trans-loaded while the remaining portion of the road remained closed, to avoid loss of lives.
It said that the Onitsha–Owerri Expressway offered a bypass to several communities in the South-East as well as connects the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of the country.
Of concern to the House also was that several portions of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway were failing even while the contractors were still on the site and that the economic well being of the people was in serious jeopardy which could lead to a great humanitarian and security crisis.
