By: Our Reporter, Calabar
A group known as “Who is who forum from the Northern Cross River state (Wwfncrs) has expressed deep concern over the deplorable conditions of the Ogoja-Bekwarra-Katsina-Ala Federal highway axis for users for a long time now without any government attention.
Worried by this nonchalant attitude by authorities responsible, the leadership of the group, have issued a clarion call on the Federal government to revisit the abandoned axis of the road.
A statement issued and signed by the leaders, Dormkclaimz Enamhe and Johnny Agim(SAN) observed that “for a long time, travelling on the Ogoja Katsina-Ala expressway whether for commercial activities or to visit home from the Northern part of the country has progressively become a nightmare.
According to the statement, “lives have been lost in motor accidents, vehicles have been damaged , cost of doing business has been increased and man-hours lost as a result of large portions of the road generously spread with potholes”.
“Presently, the statement said, this destruction is moving into our villages and towns centres as heavy duty trucks as well as other vehicles are gradually destroying roads that pass through them and are ordinarily not built for heavy vehicular movements in a bid to find alternative roads”.
“Our utmost concern right now is the Abuochiche-Ijibor stretch which has been rendered completely non pliable with a huge muddy gully splitting the road in the middle, the statement added”.
Therefore, “we cannot continue to be silent in the midst of this unfortunate circumstances that threatens our safety and means of livelihood as a people since commercial activities have been impacted negatively with movement of goods and passengers a herculean task”.
It added, “the Ogoja people are law abiding citizens contributing to the GDP of this country through agrarian and other activities, we therefore deserve to enjoy good roads like other Nigerian citizens”.
“We therefore call on the Federal government to as a matter of urgency fix this long neglected road to enable us go about our activities safely and earn a living”.
In addition, the statement added, “we call on the government of Cross River State, our lawmakers and other relevant stakeholders to do the needful in terms of ensuring that the necessary attention is paid to the execution of this project”.
“Ogoja People are tired of living with this menace of a road, we want it fixed now, the statement emphasized.”
