Stakeholders Lament Politics Of South East Roads

Okey Maduforo, Awka

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Anambra State, in conjunction with the state police command and other security personnel, yesterday carried out a mass burial for the dead victims of Umunya road mishap at Oyi council headquarters.

This is just as Ohanaeze Ndigbo and prominent politicians from the South East are lamenting that authorities are playing politics with roads in their geo -political zone.

According to the commandant of the FRSC in Anambra, Mr. Ayobami Omiyale, two identifiable corpses have been deposited at New World Mortuary in Awkuzu, while the injured victims have been transferred to Nnewi Teaching Hospital.

Already, the Consolidated Construction Company (CCC) has commenced palliative work on the Umunya junction, while the burnt vehicles have been cleared.

The Umunya Anambra State road accident has rekindled the age -long anger of Ohanaeze Ndigbo over the neglect and politics being played by government with the roads in the South East zone.

The Onitsha -Enugu express road was constructed in the Second Republic by (then) President Shehu Shagari. Ever since, not much has been done in the area of maintenance on the road.

Speaking with reporters in Awka, the immediate past president -general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, said: “It is unfortunate that it is our people that suffer the effect of the dilapidated state of our federal roads. It is unfortunate that the Umunya carnage occurred and several lives were lost in the process. We have also lost a lot due to bad road in terms of man hours, resources and, of course, lives.

“There has been this recalling act of playing politics with South East roads. It is either the state government is at war with the Federal Government over reconstructing of federal roads or that the contracts awarded were merely used as a gimmick to win the votes of Ndigbo to our peril.”

Former Anambra governor and governorship candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Dr. Chris Ngige, has called for public mourning of those lost to the accident while commiserating with the familities of the deceased.

Ngige, who was visibly in tears over the loss of lives, lamented: “The federal and state governments should be alive to their responsibilities on the state of our roads. While I was governor, my administration constructed a lot of federal roads. Even when the Federal Government was saying no, we insisted and constructed those roads.

“The then Federal Government refused to pay us back. But when I left, it paid about N7 billion to the state government. So I urge the state government not to see any road as federal or state road because those that use those roads are our people. This is not politics but government being alive to its responsibilities.”

Former Anambra governor, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, could not hide his feelings about the incident. He lamented that the death trap on the federal highways in Igboland is a further reminder that Ndigbo is a conquered race.

Ezeife, while sympathising with the affected families, contended that if the unity of the country is anything to go by, the sorry state of federal roads in Igboland “is an indication that all is not well in the country’s polity”.