Posted by By GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka on
Businessmen from Anambra State have lamented the deplorable state of the Benin-Shagamu expressway and the loss of over N200 million worth of goods weekly due to the bad road.
Businessmen from Anambra State have lamented the deplorable state of the Benin-Shagamu expressway and the loss of over N200 million worth of goods weekly due to the bad road.
Relaying their pitiable situation yesterday when they paid a protest visit to one of the three Senators representing the State, Chief Annie Okonkwo, the businessmen made up of traders, importers and manufacturers, said that vehicles conveying their goods in containers to and from the East usually fall on the road, destroying the goods due to the road's deplorable state.
Leader of the delegation to Senator Okonkwo in Ojoto, Mr. Onuzulike Nwoolisa, said it was regrettable that despite the contribution of Ndigbo in nation building, the Federal Government had continued to pay lip service to issues concerning their welfare.
He noted that no day passes without a record of losses by one or two businessmen on the said road, stressing in a particular incident, a trader lost goods worth over N10 million when the truck conveying his 20 feet container loaded with glasses fell at one of the bad spots shortly after Ore.
Nwolisa noted that every week over 10 trucks with containers fall on the expressway on their way from Lagos to Onitsha, decrying what he called Federal Government's lip service to the state of highways in the country.
According to him, the worst victims of it are Ndigbo of the South East geo-political zone, hence the traders urged members of the National Assembly from the South East and South-South to intervene in the matter.
He asked the lawmakers to put up a strongly worded petition to the Presidency and follow it up wit high powered delegation to President Umar Yar'Adua to show how serious the matter is.
Responding, Senator Okonkwo challenged the Federal Government to use the road to show proof of its commitments towards providing basic infrastructure by seeing to its expeditious reconstruction.
He recalled his ordeal on the same road when he had to spend more than two hours at a spot for the vehicles trapped in the bad road to be pulled out.
Okonkwo, who apologized to the businessmen on behalf of the Federal Government, urged the Ministry of Transport to see the urgent need of reconstructing Benin-Shagamu Expressway because of its economic importance.
The Senator, however, expressed confidence that with the public hearing on the transport sector polities and funding since 1999, some of the mysteries of the Nigerian roads would be unraveled.