Engr. Ethan Uzamere, the Edo State Commissioner for Roads and Bridges, has assured that within the four months to the end of the Governor Godwin Obaseki led administration a couple of roads presently under rehabilitation and construction in the state would be completed to ease the movement of motorists and other residents of the state.
He gave the assurance while speaking with reporters during a routine inspection/monitoring of some road projects in Ovia North East and Ovia South West Local Government Areas of the state.
“We are doing our routine checks on the progress of the roads that the Ministry has awarded. In construction there’s always opportunity to go and change and rejig things a little bit to work better. We have seen a lot of issues that are going on certain roads that we’re working on. We’re now going back to the drawing board to redesign,” he stated in relation to some failed portion of the roads.
Making reference to a portion of the road that has been reconstructed/rehabilitated, Engr. Ethan divulged, “as you can see this road leads to different farms sites and it also leads to a general hospital. There’s also a few religious centres around there. There’s also a very big residential community around these areas. It actually opens up the inner streets of the community.
“One of the issues affecting our roads are external factors. Coming now, you see that most of the reasons are because of borrow pits. People are taking sand from the pit and this is actually making our roads to fail. It is very important to know who did these borrow pits miners get their licenses from?
“They get their licenses through the federal government and some times, not even the state government is aware. They deal with the community directly. So, it is very important for us as a ministry to let the people of the locality know the effects of the mining activities. It is actually going to affect their community land.
“You are seeing a lot of erosion around the states. It is not just Edo but around Nigeria. One of the major reasons where we have this issue it is actually man made but with proper planning and organizations, we can see how we can control some of these issues.”
Going further, Uzamere stressed: “I am optimistic that most of these roads will be completed before the end of this administration. The projects we are doing is not personal. It is for the people. I know the people that this road is affecting will also cry to the next government that they should continue with the project.”
Roads inspected by Engr. Uzamere during the exercise included the Iguobazuwa- Usen-Okoro/Ugbogui Road Project in Ovia South West Local Government Area put at a length of 13.22km. Others are Usen-Okoro Road whose length is 7.1km; Okemola Road which is 1.45km and Ugbogui Road which is 2.5km all in Ovia North East Local Government Area.
