Esan youths in Edo State have begged the minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, to fix the Ekpoma- Benin road.
They blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration when Mr Mike Onolememen was minister of works for the present deplorable state of the road and demanded an apology from the PDP over the recent arrest of their colleagues by the military when they protested the bad condition of roads in Ekpoma.
The youths were arrested and prevented by troops earlier in the week from protesting on the expressway as queues of trailers and tankers had worsened the state of the road.
In a statement, the convener of the Coalition of Esan Youth Movements, Mr Odion Ighodaro, recalled that the contract for road was awarded in 2013 when Onolememen, a PDP chieftain, was the minister.
According to him, Onolememen had promised that the project would be completed within 30 months, adding that he then explained that the federal government awarded the contract to three
companies so that work could be hasten on the road.
Ighodaro alleged that Onolememeh in his wisdom revoked one of the contractor’s move to start work from Ewu in Edo central up to Ehor junction, but approved the start of the work from Auchi on one section and Benin on another section.
“If our son, the then minister of works had allowed the work to continue simultaneously at Ewu through Ekpoma because of the university and up to Ehor, the deplorable condition at Ekpoma would have been averted today.”
He lamented that the same Onolememen is back contesting for the Senate under the same PDP.
The coalition said though the former minister said he planned to continue the Ewu section of the work when he returned for the second time in 2015 as minister, “we are aware that he gambled it on the altar of politics.
Speaking earlier in the week, the Esan Liberation Movement led by Prosper Iyere, who organised the blockade, said they would occupy the road until the government responded to their demands to fix it.
