Lawmaker Decries State Of Okrika Roads

The lawmaker representing Okrika Constituency in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Ibelema Okpokiri, has lamented the poor state of Okrika roads that hamper mobilty in the area.

Hon. Okpokiri who stated this last Wednesday in Port Harcourt, in a chat with Assembly correspondents, decried a situation where the only access road to Okrika mainland had become a death trap.

The lawmaker explained that tanker drivers had converted the whole stretch of the road from the Refinery junction to Okrika mainland as their legitimate parking lot, thereby subjecting road users to hardship.

He cited an example of a family travelling from Port Harcourt to Okrika on a weekend that were crushed to death by a tanker, noting that similar cases of this nature abound and appealed to the relevant authorities particularly the Nigerian Petroleum Refining Company (NPRC) to save his constituents.

Hon. Okpokiri, regretted that inspite of the acquisition of land for constructing a tanker park by the Refinery eight years ago, nothing has happened on the site but Okrika people have been paying dearly with their lives.

Similarly, the lawmaker disclosed that the waterway connecting Port Harcourt and Okrika at Abuloma waterfront is another sorry site especially during low tide as barges block the waterway and make the route impassable by flyboats.

Hon. Okpokiri, who is the House Committee Chairman on Urban Development called for the de-silting of the Abuloma axis of the waterway because at low tide, the available water bodies left for navigation by flyboats is about two metres from the last point of berthing of the barges thereby rendering the space impassable.

According to him, several efforts have been made by him and the Okrika council chairman to attract the attention of the various authorities concerned to find solution to the lingering problem to no avail including a motion at the floor of the Assembly.

He, therefore, reiterated the call on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to assist them desilt the waterway to avoid further loss of lives and property.