Ekiti most neglected, says Afe Babalola – TheNigerialawyer

The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Chief Afe
Babalola, on Wednesday lamented that Ekiti State was the most
neglected by the Federal Government in terms of roads.

Babalola lamented that all his appeals to the Federal Government
and its Ekiti State counterpart to save the Ureje Bridge which
linked his university to Ado Ekiti and as well the capital city to
other communities in the state and Ondo State from collapse fell on
deaf ears.

The ABUAD founder, who spoke in Ado Ekiti against the backdrop
of the collapse of part of the bridge on Monday night following the
flooding that ravaged the state capital and the accompanying
drowning of a person, said, the place needed a new bridge beyond
the present palliative measure.

He said, “Ekiti State is the most neglected in this country in
term of roads. Look at the road between Ilesha and Ado Ekiti, it
was made over 100 years ago. This road from Ado Ekiti to Ijan to
Ode Ekiti to Ikare Akoko (Ondo State) to Lokoja (Kogi State) was
built before I was born. That narrow bridge which collapsed on
Monday night was built over 100 years ago.

“During the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo, I protested in
my usual way, he decided to repair the road from Ado Ekiti to
Ikole, but up till now, it has not been completed. Again, Obasanjo
started the road from Itawure to Ado Ekiti, a dual carriageway, it
was completed except to tar it, now it is a forest, nobody will
know there is road there again.

“The road from Ado Ekiti to Akure (Ondo State) is one of the
worst in the country. No federal road is good in the state. What I
will continue to do is to pile pressure as much as possible on
those,” he said.

He said, “For the past nine years, I have been maintaining that
(Ado Ekiti – ABUAD) road. This year, after series of letters, FERMA
wrote to me to inform me that they have awarded the road to a
contractor.

“I have been following the contractor day and night. What I know
which is true is that the contractor has done more damage to the
road than helping us. I wrote about the bridge to the Federal
Ministry of Works, I copied the President, I also wrote letters to
the governor of the state, Dr Kayode Fayemi, because I knew that
the road was neglected by the contractor and the Federal
Government.

“I have been writing, phoning, sending text messages that it
would collapse soon. I wrote letters warning everybody including
the governor of this state that the bridge would collapse. Nothing
was done about it.

“Though when it happened eventually, I also sent text to
Governor Fayemi informing him that what I told him would soon
happen had happened. I got in touch with the Minister for Works,
Babatunde Fashola, who eventually phoned me that morning when he
saw that it had collapsed. He said they were going to do something
about it.

“Later in the afternoon, I got a text message from Governor
Fayemi that some people would come there the following morning.
Fashola told me that they were moving there immediately, so I went
there and I found out that they were eventually working there.

“In the meantime, my team of engineers had been there in the
morning, so they worked together with the man that came from the
Ministry of Works. He was there with them throughout yesterday.
What we have done is palliative,” Babalola said.

Fayemi said his government had already swung into action with
some remedial measures to ensure that flood would no longer cause
further havoc on the people of the state.

The governor, who spoke in Ado Ekiti while inspecting the
flood-ravaged bridge and some other flooded areas in Ado-Ekiti,
said the bridge was too small to contain the high flow of water
during heavy rains.

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