Travellers and motorists plying the Warri-Benin dual carriage way are lamenting the dilapidated state of the road. For a journey from Benin to Warri that is usually covered in less than one hour, motorists and travellers endure harrowing experiences that last many hours and even days.
The Ologbo axis, a boundary town between Delta and Edo state is the worst spot. The Ibada-Elume -Sapele-Amukpe section in Delta state are equally in pitiable states.
At Ologbo, giant potholes filled with muddy water have made the road impassable, causing massive gridlock that stretches for kilometers. The situation is compounded by load-laden trucks, tankers and trailers falling on their sides, as the drivers maneuver the failed portions. Hundreds of vehicles are trapped with no way forward or backwards, leaving many with no choice than stay out the dangerous gridlock.
But this is not new. It is a perennial problem that rears its ugly head continuously since the Warri-Benin dual carriage way was flagged for public use since 2010 and 2011, and with little concern from the federal government.
While the Delta state government has managed to do minor fixes on a few sections of the road, especially the Ibada-Elume/Amukpe axis, Edo state whose section host the most dilapidated Ologbo spot where thousands of motorists and transporters have been trapped for days, appear unmoved.
It recently erected signposts on the failed portions of the road which reads: “This is federal government road, please bear with us.” Many believe the signposts are a tacit statement by Governor Godwin Obaseki that Edo state won’t deploy its funds to fix the failed spots on the Benin-Warri road nor the terrible Benin-Agbor dual carriage way.
In April, shortly before President Muhammadu Buhari left office, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba, announced that Buhari had approved the reconstruction of the Benin, Sapele, Warri road, during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting
The Minister said that road sections were approved under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). He gave breakdown of the sections of the road that had been awarded for reconstruction:
Section one, made up of the 28.275 kilometre long Benin – Imasabor in favour of Messrs Levant Construction Company Limited in the sum of N98,916,451,227.28 inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT with a 24-month completion period.
Section two, made up of 38.525 kilometre long Imasabor-Ibada Elume in favour of Messrs GELD Construction Company Limited/Triata Limited in the sum of N127,648,926,047.37 inclusive of 7.5 percent VAT, with a 36-month completion period.
Section three made up of 23.2 kilometre long Ibada Elume-Warri in favour of Messrs SKECC Nigeria Limited in the sum of N89,142,998,919.59 inclusive of 7.5 percent VAT with a 42-month completion period. Strangely, none of the contractors has mobilised to site despite the Warri-Benin road reconstruction awarded to various contractors.
The road has remained in very deplorable state with travellers bogged down for hours and even days at various spots, depending on the size of vehicle.
Prof. Kingsley Omoyibo of the University of Benin who spent six hours at the Ologbo spot, described that situation as harrowing, fearful and dangerous.
Omoyibo would have missed the special lecture he was to deliver as guest speaker at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, in the outskirts of Warri, had he not traveled a day earlier. “I spent over six hours on that spot at Ologbo, from 7 am to about 1 pm. The state of the road and the risk involved is huge – trucks loaded with fuel struggling for space with smaller vehicles, it is horrible. If there’s a carnage, it’s going to be terrible.
The road is very bad and one wonders if, indeed, the federal government or state governments, Edo and Delta state governments are making any representation of such situation to the federal executive council.
“For a strategic federal road like the Warri-Benin to fall into such disrepair, with no palliative measures in place is unacceptable. People are risking their lives, some spent the night on the bad spot. People were on the road overnight for a journey of one hour or forty five minutes from Benin.
“Some told me they slept over night, so I was very lucky. I left my home in Benin for Warri with my car but I had to park it at Ologbo on the other side and joined another car to Warri after spending over six hours without movement. The federal and state governments are trading blames. Edo state government has posted bills saying the road does not belong to them but to the federal government, they are passing the buck to the federal government, but can’t there be palliative works? Why are they there? What is now the responsibility of governance? It is unfortunate,” he said.
Similarly, commuters now avoid travelling the Benin-Ekopma -Auchi routes due to the deplorable condition of the road, which has left many dead and several others seriously injured.
The Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi road is said to have become a death trap. It recently recorded a fatal accident involving the convoy of a immediate past speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA), Marcus Onobun. The avoidable accident left him hospitalized at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), having sustained serious fractures.
Onobun, a federal lawmaker representing Esan West, Esan Central and Igueben Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, narrowly escaped death in the ghastly auto crash on his way to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja from Benin city, the Edo state capital. The Guardian gathered that Onobun’s vehicle fell into a ditch and somersaulted multiple times along Ekpoma-Abuja highway.
When connecting Edo state from the southern part of Nigeria, through the Benin- Sapele-Warri axis of the federal highway, the road is almost inaccessible, owing to the several failed portions left unattended to over the years by past administrations.
Coming from the south west into Edo State, another tragic spot to avoid is the popular Ovia River Bridge, notorious for accidents, due to the failed road linking the dual carriage bridge.
The Ovia river bridge, which is some kilometers from the ever busy Okada junction, coming from the South West part of the country, has claimed so many lives within the first half of the year, attracting criticism by community leaders, even as the state and federal government officials trade blame.
Lending his voice to the demand for an intervention on the Ovia river bridge is the member representing Ovia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Denis Idahosa. Idahosa had countless times raised the alarm of looming danger at the faulty bridge in Ovia River along the Benin – Ore highway, which has not yielded any positive response from government both at the state and federal level.
The disastrous bridge has claimed over 11 lives with the last one month as 11 people died on the bridge recently in a bus belonging to the Salvation Army while the bodies of other occupants of a yet to be identified pick-up truck equally plunged into the river.
Idahosa said that the unwarranted deaths, destruction and hardship commuters suffered on that road prompted him to move a motion of urgent public importance on the floor of the Green Chamber sometime last year. He expressed sadness that the bad section on the bridge on the highway had led to loss of several lives and properties worth millions of Naira.
Following the hues and cries of residents over the worsening condition of federal roads, Edo state lawmakers led by the speaker, Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA), Mr. Blessing Agbebaku had summoned the Controller, Federal Ministry of Works to the hallowed Chambers. Agbebaku gave the summons during plenary over the refusal of the controller of works to appear with the director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) Muktar Ibrahim, who was present to give his own account of the highway saga.
On his part, the Director, Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Muktar Ibrahim who appreciated the lawmakers for their patience, noted that in the state, there are 19 Federal roads spanning 1,265 kilometers. He disclosed that five of the roads were under rehabilitation, including Benin-Warri Road, Benin-Auchi Road, Auchi -Igarra-Ibillo Road, Ewu – Uromi Road and Illushi- Uromi Road.
He explained that FERMA as an agency only deals with rehabilitation of roads and not construction, stressing that it is the duty of Federal Ministry of Works to undertake construction.
An engineer with Setraco Nigeria Ltd, one of the construction firms that built the East-West road, who preferred anonymity, told The Guardian that the Warri-Benin road is one of the busiest stretch of the East-West road, which passes through the main Niger Delta states, and as such, needs steady maintenance.
He said it is heavily plied by transporters, motorists and haulage firms, which use heavy trucks, tankers and trailers, and therefore prone to wearing out in a short time in view of the swampy terrain. He said the federal government should have engaged a permanent firm to regularly monitor and fix failed portions of the road because of the volume of traffic. He lamented that none of such exists.
He said the bad state of the road has been worsened by the unusual heavy rainfall in the region this year, adding that virtually all the drainages installed on the road have been rbeen blocked by soil and other debris, leading to large craters of potholes and traffic building up.
Apart from disrupting travels, the bad spots have claimed lives. Last year five persons lost their lives at Ugbenu section of the road when a fuel tanker wading through the bad road fell and emptied its content on the
road, and as community residents and others scooped fuel from potholes, it suddenly burst into flames and killed five persons with many sustaining various degrees of burns.
Delta Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori blamed the deplorable state of the Warri-Benin dual carriage way on the federal government, saying the neglect was a scorecard of the failure of the APC government at the national level.
“In Delta State, our biggest problem is with the Federal roads. Governor Okowa has done well in constructing and rehabilitating our state and rural roads. Where we have problems is with the Federal roads, especially the roads from Amukpe connecting Eku, Abraka, Obiaruku to Agbor, and the expressway from Benin to Warri, Ughelli to Port Harcourt.
“It is a shame that the APC government has left those roads in very bad condition. Perhaps they enjoy the untold hardship the people suffer commuting on those roads. The most terrible thing is that they have restricted the State government from intervening to do some works on the roads to make them passable for the people. Yet, we have somebody in Abuja who says he has capacity. What kind of capacity is that when you cannot use it to provide solutions for the suffering of your people?,” Oborevwori said before the general election.
Former Workd minister, Babatunde Fashola had warned the states not to fix any federal road if they will demand for refund from federal government. The former minister said, the President issued the directive due to the humongous amounts being claimed by the governors after repairing federal roads in their states.