By Ebenezer Adurokiya
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 23RD (URHOBOTODAY)-The agony is uncalled for. Being a stinking oil-rich city of no mean repute, residents of Warri and environs in Delta State certainly deserve the best in terms of basic social amenities. But their situation is far from better! Except for a few relatively, newly-fixed, and in some cases, dualised Refinery and Deco roads, others have, more than ever before, become a source of worry to road users and residents.
The abandoned dualisation of Effurun-Warri-Sapele road in the name of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by the last administration has assumed a phenomenal nightmare to motorists. It is causing more harm than good. If daring vehicles are not stuck in the yawning pits left unattended to by the contractor, their body parts are left badly damaged! Usually termed a federal road by successive governments as an excuse not to permanently fix it, the road linking the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ugbuwangue and Roundabout has been left unattended to.

Previous plastic work perfunctorily done on the road has even left it worse than when they met it. Today, motorists have turned the expressway into a single carriage way which recently led to the death of a young boy identified as Tunde who was attempting to cross the expressway, but was knocked down by a vehicle. Similarly, roads linking Warri to Ubeji, Egbokodo, Ifie, Aja Eta and Ijala communities are annoyingly in a terrible shape.
A source said the outgone governor of the state, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is an Itsekiri himself, had awarded contracts to notable sons and daughters of Iwere (Itsekiri) to fix the roads, but they either did it halfway or never bordered at all. A peace-builder and vociferous lawyer, Robinson Ariyo, took to the social media to lament the state of the Ubeji road which he described as the only road leading to a community which plays host to oil companies such as the Nigerian Gas Company (NNPC), Warri Refinery Petrochemical Company (WRPC), the Pipeline Products and Marketing Company (PPMC) and several tank farms and highly placed government officials and leaders.

The ordinary man on the street of Warri also spoke angrily on the poor state of roads in the oil-rich city. Paul Ifetmenya, a motorist, did not hide his disenchantment. Speaking on the deep gullies on the expressway between NPA and Ugbuwangue in pidgin, he said “This road wen dem do wen no reach more than one week before the road scatter, make them give the contract to Julius Berger to do the work. Nor be individual company go dey do am because the thing dey spoil our business for here, make them spend money.”
To Mohammed Abubakar, a Northerner, filth and erosion have worsened the disgusting state of the poor roads. “You see, this place dirty well, well here na only water water dey gather here, if government come do the road e go better, make them put hand together do the road. This month motor don fall for here scatter, keke accident dey happen here so make them come do am for us even if I get money, I go carry sand come pour for this road, the water dey make market no dey so we dey beg government to do the road,” the orange seller quipped.
Some respondents fingered the poor state of drainage system as the cause of the poor state of roads in Warri and environs. Paradise Abada said some of the “roads are bad because of this gutter. At first when the road was constructed then, the gutter also should have been put in place; it would have been better, but for now, the road is of no use because of the potholes everywhere on the road. Another respondent, Tosan Fenama, who spoke in pidgin, said “My prayer na make Okowa know about this road wen poor people dey pass through for this town. He fit dey fly aeroplane oh! That time he nor dey see the road then. Make he come do the road, that one nor be say no money, see the NPA express na one way people dey drive, just last week na motor kill person here. Tunde na be the name of the boy wen die, he wan cross for Ekurede Itsekiri junction; all this na because of one way drive. This boy suppose graduate this week, na because of this one way drive oh! So, make them no wait make more people die first before dem go do the road, if na sand them put full am first, e go better.”
Meanwhile, residents of the area have called on the government of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to come to the aide of Warri and environs particularly in terms of road network. Frank Oruru, Ufuoma Obiebi, Joseph Eket and others believed that if Okowa gets a clean bill from the ongoing fireworks at the Election Petition Tribunal over the last governorship election in the state, he may prioritise the roads and get them fixed.
“For Okowa, I know he does not stay in Warri and I also heard he took loan concerning basic education in the state. It would be better for him to consider the road also,” Abubakar noted. For optimistic Obiebi, “I believe Okowa will be able to construct these roads; Uduaghan really maintained the roads, but there are other things needed to be done; so after the case between Okowa and Great Ogboru is finally concluded and if Okowa comes top, he would be able to construct the roads well.”