Nigerians urge FERMA to speed up road rehabilitation
NAN-H-30
Road
By Uche Bibilari/Funmi Adeyemi
Abuja, Sept. 25, 2017 (NAN) Motorists and travellers in Nigeria on Monday appealed to the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to speed up work on federal roads to ease movement of goods and services within the country.
The motorists and travellers, who made the appeal in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja decried conditions of most of the federal roads.
According to them, conditions of most federal roads are worrisome and risky as motorists spend longer hours and days before reaching their final destinations.
Mrs Funke Onadapo, a Medical Practitioner, said that the impact of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) was no longer being felt on the roads as majority of the federal roads were in deplorable state.
“I wonder if FERMA still exist, even the frequent road maintenance they usually perform did no longer exist.
“FERMA needs to go back to the way of doing things in the past; at least it will go a long way to keep the roads passable.
Mr Rotimi Adeyemi, a civil servant, said a journey of 10 hours from Abuja to Lagos took him 15 hours, attributing this to the bad state of the roads across the states.
Adeyemi noted that government had not paid adequate attention to the roads, which had hitherto claimed many lives while many had sustained various degree of injuries.
“ I was privileged to travel to Lagos two weeks ago and what I saw on the roads was disheartening.
“ Ibilo, a popular town in Edo state is a no go area. Many motorists had to divert to roads along a bush path to have access.
“This particular road is an eye-saw because it is a death trap for motorists, who are not conversant with it,’’ he said.
Adeyemi appealed to the government to do the needful by making the federal highways passable to ease transportation, life and business activities.
Also, Mrs Nkechi Emeka, a teacher, who recently visited her village in Enugu state, lamented that roads in the east axis are nightmare to travellers.
Emeka said that there were so many ditches on the roads, which damaged her vehicle, stressing the need to fix most of these roads.
“ My experience on the road was horrible. I went to the park to board a vehicle going to Enugu with two of my kids.
“ As we approached Okene in Kogi state, our vehicle entered into a pothole and this experience made us to sleep on the vehicle.
“ It is a terrible experience and our leaders are not ready to do the right thing.
“I am pleading to our leaders to look into the plight of the citizenry as they are the ones who ply these roads on daily basis,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, the Head of Communication/ Public Relations Officer, FERMA, Mrs Maryam Sanusi said that FERMA was very much in existence.
According to her, roads within the agency’s scope of work are recently being repaired and some completed.
“If we have not been maintaining the roads no vehicles would have been able to ply some of the roads as I speak with you,’’ she said.
She listed some of the roads recently completed within the agency’s scope of work to include; General Maintenance, Repair of damaged sections and strengthening of weak sections of carriageway along Jos- Bauchi road in Plateau State.
Also, the repair and major maintenance of road failures along Emohua – Degema Abonnema road in River State, general maintenance, repairs of Udi – Ozalla – Nnara – Nkerefi –Ebony State boarder road in Enugu State.
Also in the list were the general maintenance/pavement strengthening of Owerri – Onitsha dual carriageway in Imo State, maintenance/repairs of critically failed sections along Umuahia – Ariam – IkotEkpene road in Abia State, among others. (NAN)
UU/FAK/BOLA/AFA
Edited by Nick Nicholas/Felix Ajide