As a way of registering their displeasure over the bad state of roads in Anambra, a Rights Group, Human Rights Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE), has organized a mock commissioning of some roads in deplorable condition in the state.
The roads commissioned over the weekend were Obodo-Ukwu and Ede Road in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State.
According to the group, the very bad roads in Onitsha and its environs have resulted in the loss of nine lives.
Among the victims, the group said, were a pregnant woman, a 70-year-old man whose tricycle was submerged in a pool of floodwater at Haruna Street and about five Keke operators and their passengers who died when a trailer fell on them due to the bad condition of Obodo-Ukwu road.
Chairman of the Group, Dede Uzor A Uzor, who led the activity, said they decided to commission the road which has cut into two since the State Governor, Willie Obiano, whose primary duty is to construct the road, has forgotten it or was too busy to remember to rehabilitate the road and other roads in the State.
He said Obodo-Ukwu road is strategic to the economic prosperity of the State as it links Owerri Federal Road with Ogbaru Local Government Area including harbour industrial estate.
He also said Haruna Street is very important too because it links Onitsha Main Market, the biggest market in West Africa with the Western flank.
“We learned that the Governor is too busy to pay attention to the rehabilitation of the roads and others in the State. That is to say that he is too busy to govern. So we are helping him to commission some of these bad roads, so that any time he wakes up from slumber, he can come and do the road,” Dede Uzor said.
The group threatened that if after 14 days, there was no action by the Governor, they will not hesitate to mobilize the human rights community and other progressive-minded people in the state, to occupy the road until something drastic is done.
In his speech, Comrade Ekene Nnadi, Chairman, Campaign for Democracy (CD) in the State, called on the House of Assembly to initiate an impeachment process against Governor Obiano for failing in his constitutional duties, lamenting however that the House is a mere rubber stamp.
In his words, “It is quite appalling that we have a House of Assembly that does not understand the position of the legislature in entrenching democratic principles in the state governance. In this very unpleasant situation, we have found ourselves, the legislature would have stood up for the people by impeaching the governor so that the state can break free from this sham of a government. But alas! The legislature does not understand its role. It is a pity.”
