Yuletide: Travellers trapped, group wants governments to fix roads

South East map

The South-East Youths for Development and Good Leadership and some residents in the South-East region have expressed concerns over the severe hardship faced by travellers returning home for the Christmas season, particularly on major highways linking the region with other parts of Nigeria.

Findings by South-East PUNCH across some major highways linking the region over the weekend showed high influx of vehicular movements while motorists and commuters are currently encountering difficulty in making use of the highways.

The roads include the Lagos–Benin–Agbor bypass, Onitsha-Owerri Road, Okigwe-Owerri Road, Enugu-Abakaliki Road and other access roads linking the region. Their deplorable conditions are causing discomfort, trapping travellers for several hours on the roads.

Addressing journalists on the development on Monday, the Convener of the group, Eze Chukwuka, flanked by the Executive Secretary, Ijeoma Chidi-Nwosu and a co-Convener, Nwarie Ugochukwu, noted that the Federal Government and South-East governors are fully aware of the “strong homecoming culture of Ndigbo”, particularly during Christmas, but they have refused to fix the roads.

Chukwuka urged the federal and state governments to embark on urgently palliative measures to ease the burden of travellers, stressing that travellers coming home for the Yuletide season are stranded for hours and even forced to sleep on the road due to the terrible condition of the highways, thereby raising security and health issues.

This, according to him, has raised serious concerns among stakeholders in the region on the inability of the governors to collaborate with the FG and fix the roads that serve as gateway for the people.

He said, “Reports from our members and concerned citizens indicate that the Lagos–Benin–Agbor bypass, which serve as a major link between Western and Eastern Nigeria, has become almost impassable.