The traditional ruler of the Omor community in the Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State, His Royal Highness Igwe Oranu Chris Chidume, has called on the government at all levels to provide quality access roads to people living in rural areas across the country.
The monarch made the call over the weekend in an interactive session with journalists in his palace. He noted that in order to address the food crisis faced by residents of the country, both the federal and state governments need to construct and maintain access roads for the easy distribution of farm products from the hinterland to the urban areas across the nation.
Igwe Oranu, while reminding the Anambra State Government that Ayamelum is the food basket of the state and, by extension, Nigeria, insists that the state shouldn’t base their road maintenance on whether a road is federal or state. He insists that the target should be to provide access to roads for people living in rural areas.
According to the monarch, “If we don’t have quality access roads to bring out what we harvest from our farms, there is no way the food crisis we are crying about will be eliminated.
“One of the easiest ways to curb the food crisis is to give access to roads to those who produce food so that it can reach the needy.”
He lamented the dilapidated nature of the roads leading to Ayamelum Local Government Area. He noted that the people of the area incur huge costs on transportation due to inaccessibility.
“When you are coming to Ayamelum, you have to come through Igbariam en route to Nando, whereas from 33, you can come straight to Ayamelum, but you cannot do that now because the road is cut off,” he said.
Igwe Oranu, while acknowledging that the government will not finish every work in the state in a day, applauded Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his steadfastness in infrastructural development across the state.
He appealed to the state government to remember Ayamelum Local Government in the area of access road construction and maintenance.
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