By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
The Anambra State Government has deployed tractors and workers to repair the failed portions of the Onitsha-Owerri expressway
The move is to allow for easy movement along the highway after a devastating erosion menace that cut the road into two, forcing commuters to seek alternative routes within the nearby villages before they can reach their destinations.
The problem caused by the failed portions along the expressway lingered for a week, thereby causing serious traffic gridlock along the road.
Most travellers reach their destinations at night due to the deplorable state of the route, even as some of the travellers had been robbed by armed hoodlums in the process.
The state Commissioner for Works, Engr Ifeanyi Okoma, who spoke during an assessment of the damaged site said that the state government commenced the intervention while expecting the response of the Federal government.
He said, “Yes the intervention work would take about N300 million and His Excellency Prof Charles Soludo had to come and stop the road from collapsing further and we are going to stop the erosion because this is the peak of the raining season”.
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Okuma said that they observed that the progression was high, which made them engage a contractor to stop it.
“We are in talks with federal ministry works and Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA and they are already on it. But it will be a long process.
“We don’t have an option. We moved a contractor that will continue with the second objective to stop further mudslides”, Engr. Okuma said.
He explained that it is an emergency but no formal contract has been awarded for the work, stressing that it will be done pending the approval of the federal government.
Also Chief of Staff to the state governor, Mr Earnest Ezeajughi appealed to
the federal government to declare a state of emergency on erosion menace in Anambra State.
Ezeajughi said, “We have over a thousand active erosion sites in Anambra State. This is just one of them. We are acting on an emergency.
“Because the Onitsha-Owerri road by Oba erosion wash off is a major devastation, we are not waiting for the federal government, even though it is their responsibility”.
He said that the people bearing the hardship are from Anambra, as such, the State government embarked on intervention to arrest the situation before other measures.
On his part, the Commissioner for Environment, Engr Felix Odimegwu noted that Anambra is the erosion capital of the country.
“We all know that Anambra is the erosion capital of Nigeria and it is only fair and just that our ecological fund should be increased by the Federal government to accommodate the countless erosion sites across the state” he said.