A group known as Concerned Edo Citizens for the second day on Tuesday blocked the Auchi axis of the Benin – Ekpoma – Auchi Abuja Highway over what they described as abandonment of the reconstruction work on the highway started since 2013.
The group mobilised residents and other road users who have made the road completely impassable, and at the popular Jattu Junction, they mounted canopies, made fires, and cooked food and meat for the people.
The protesters also got the sympathy of the truck drivers union within the Etsako West axis as they deployed their vehicles to block the junction, which is a gateway to vehicles plying the Benin-Ekpoma – Abuja highway.
The blockage witnessed a long stretch of trailers blocking one lane from Jattu Junction to Okpella and Agbede, causing a lot of inconvenience to other road users.
Recall that a similar scenario occurred last year, which led to assurances by the officials of the federal Ministry of Works through two royal fathers from the area, the Otaru of Auchi and the Ogieneni of Uzairue, to kick-start the rehabilitation of the road.
Similarly, the senator representing Edo North at the Senate, Adams Oshiomhole, recently lamented that the paltry sum of $200 million was voted for the reconstruction of the road in the 2024 budget.
A lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic told Vanguard yesterday that A lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic told Vanguard yesterday that “going around Auchi and environs has been tough in the last two days because the blockade of the highway spiralled into adjoining roads and streets in the town.
One cannot even drive with the current cost of fuel, so commercial vehicles have been the option adopted to move around the town.
“But it is rather unfortunate that the government can subject its own citizens to this kind of hardship. There is no security, no light, and no road for the people. Is it not an embarrassment that the federal government cannot complete a road they started in 2013? They have not even gone halfway in the construction,” he said.
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