Rivers: ZLP, CSOs To Stage Protest Over East-West Road Project

The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) has said that it will stage a protest along with civil society organisations (CSOs) against the federal government if it fails to fix the Eleme-Onne section of the East-West Road in Rivers State within 21 days.

ZLP governorship candidate in the state, Rt. Hon. Leyii Kwanee, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt on Sunday, decried the spate of deaths recorded from the section of the road in the past one week.

Kwanee stated that as a governorship candidate, he was worried that leaders who swore to protect the lives and property of Nigerians would keep quiet while lives are lost on the road on daily basis.

The statement reads in part: “The spate of deaths from gruesome road accidents that were recorded on the Eleme junction to Trailer Park stretch of the East-West Road last week is of grave concern to the Kwanee Leyii 2023 Gubernatorial Campaign Organization.

“We have also noted the depth of grief expressed by Rivers people and other well-meaning Nigerians over the avoidable destruction of lives resulting from trailers falling on a bus and crushing to death or knocking off another on the Akpajo bridge and plunging the passengers to their untimely death.

“There is no doubt that these deaths could have been averted but for the very terrible state of the aforementioned sections of that road.

“As a candidate for the 2023 general elections on the platform of the Zenith Labour Party, I am concerned that we have leaders and governments in place which swore to protect and defend the Nigerian Constitution yet can go to bed every other night whilst the lives and properties that Constitution has given them an assignment to protect are destroyed out of negligence and total lack of empathy for the welfare of Rivers people and fellow Nigerians.

“For the avoidance of doubt, let us re-emphasize that no government worthy of its name would abandon a road that warehouses hundreds of multimillion dollar foreign and local investments such as are found in the Federal Ocean Terminal at Onne in Eleme local government area to consume the lives of citizens plying on that route.

“This is unacceptable by every civilized standards and we condemn it in no uncertain terms.

“Consequently, as a responsible citizen of the Federal Republic and a political party that places premium on the lives and welfare of Rivers people and other Nigerians living and doing business in or transiting through the State, we are compelled to do one or both of these two things.

“We call on the authorities of the Federal and Rivers State Governments, particularly the Federal Ministry of Works, Niger Delta Development Commission, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency and her State counterpart to quickly intervene and mobilize contractors to restore that section of the East-West road to safe passage.

“Where that is not done within the next 21 days, we shall mobilize civil society to take actions including blocking movement by vehicles on that road for as long as the Federal and Rivers State Governments continue to pay deaf ears to the plight of our people.”