Bad Roads, Insecurity, Poor Power Supply Hindering Abraka’s Development —Rights Activist

By Our Reporter

Rights activist and former House of Representatives candidate for Ethiope Federal Constituency in the 2023 elections, Prince Ukuanovwe Godstime OJ, has said that the state of Abraka roads are a big concern to him and many Indigenes, saying the issue of insecurity and lack of power supply must be looked into for the community to make progress.

Ukuanovwe who addressed the press on Saturday congratulated youths on the occasion of the 2023 International Youth Day celebration.

Ukuanovwe who disclosed that he is a native and resident of Abraka, said the problem of bad roads and insecurity are intertwined.

He continued: “As we speak, the Abraka- Amukpe-Agbor expressway is in great need of government attention. The road is causing too much harm to the people of Abraka and government at all level should attend to this very road.”

Speaking further, he called on the Federal Government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the state government led by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and the Local Government Chairman, Pharmacist Victor Ofobrukueta to come and handle the roads as a matter of urgency.

In his words, “if the state government wants to argue that this road is not a state road, they should also bear in mind that the users of the said roads are first indigenes of Delta and Ethiope East before they became Nigerians and by extension, the bad road is causing more issues in the town because people are now diverting into nearby streets thereby overworking the link roads in the community, making them to become bad too. It is a matter of urgency that our roads should be fixed. It is also a pitiful issue because the people holding political posts in the community who refer to themselves as politicians do not attend to this roads.

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“On another note, if this road is not fixed, insecurity will continue to thrive. At the Eku portion of this road that is where kidnapping are done on daily basis. Professors, councillors, students etc have been kidnapped and killed in that part of the road. We cannot continue to keep quiet in these circumstances so we are calling on Delta State Government to fix our roads and treat this as a matter of urgency because Abraka truly needs roads.

On the present state of the roads fixed by the Delta State University close to campus 2, he said: “Well, if you also noticed, those gestures were done by private individuals and it is what they can afford that they will use. What we should be discussing now is that when the government wants to intervene, they should use quality materials. If you recall, we protested this very road in 2020 and the past governor of the state, His Excellency Governor Ifeanyi Okowa intervened but it seems that the materials they used were inferior because if you repair a road in 2020 and the road has now failed again in 2023 that means the materials used were substandard. We want to call on the government that if they are coming to fix this road again, they should use standard materials so that we will not be discussing the failure of this same road again.”

Continuing, he called on governments in the country to be responsible and responsive in tackling issues of road failure, insecurities and the security of lives and properties.

“We shall not continue to protest based on things that should be basic. The issues of roads are basic and we should not be protesting for it. So the government should be responsive in tackling our issues,” he opined.

Speaking further, he said the first thing Abraka needs are good roads because no one can access a place without motorable roads.

Adding: “So, the major thing is road while electricity, production industries and government establishment for job creation trails behind.

“For a business to thrive in a community, they need good and constant electricity. There is no light anywhere in Abraka. Another thing is that they should have a proper police scene and as an individual, I am calling for the reform of the Nigerian police force. There should be a review of the police force so that we can have a proper policing because the issues that we are having as a people, are not more than electricity, insecurity and bad roads. These are things that can be attended to within a short period of time.”

Meanwhile, he spoke on the recent EFCC invasion of Abraka community.

His words: “The EFCC should be tackling the people that are embezzling our public funds and not coming around to chase young people that are fighting for survival. They have tagged our people with so many unprintable names and locked over 50 of our youths in their holding facility in Benin. I want to call the DG of the EFCC to also look into this issue as a matter of urgency and resolve them.”