Communities Protest Over Failed Teboga Road, Gives Obaseki 30 Days Ultimatum
By Simeon OSAJIE
Residents of Teboga and Uteh Communities in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, has given the State government a-30-day ultimatum to fix the road leading to their communities.
They threatened that, if it is not done, they will continue to barricade the ever busy road leading to Aduwawa axis of the state.
They gave the ultimatum when they barricaded the Teboga road, leading to Aduwawa axis of the state in protest of the bad roads leading to their communities.
Addressing newsmen, the Chairman of Iwogban North Landlords and Landladies Association, Elder Enabosi Edward, said Iwogban-Uteh-Teboga road has remained in a very sorry state for several years with the government making promises of fixing it but all to no avail.
He said having waited patiently for the government to fix it and nothing is being done to that effect, they have decided to block the road to register their grievances.
“Our roads from this Iwogban-Uteh-Teboga road, has been taken over by erosion. We have even made hand bridge through our own self-help so that we can assess our homes.
“All along, we have been talking with the government. People who claimed to be government officials have been coming to inspect the roads and when they come, they promised that the road has been awarded and that they are coming to work on the road. They just promised and they did nothing
“During election, we mobilized our youths and every other persons to go and vote for the governor hoping that this road will be constructed because he has so assured us but now, nothing is done”, he said.
Elder Enabosi said they have made frantic efforts to reach the appropriate authorities to construct the road and it has not yielded any positive result.
“We have gone to the secretary to the state government to remind him and if we go to the governor’s office, they will refer us to the ministry and they will so assure us that the road has been captured already and nothing is done by now.
“Of recent, about three weeks ago, some government officials came and said that we should go and plant bamboo in a gully that is above 15 feet deep because the road is so bad.
“We do not know if they were sent by the government. We made effort to see the governor, we could not see him. We went to the Commissioner, only one of the directors told us that the place has been captured and that works will soon commenced but with this new directive that we should go and plant bamboo, it means that there is no hope”, he said.
Also speaking a resident and landlord of one of the communities, Engr. Duke Josiah Ighomuaye, said it is painful for a landlord to be a tenant in his old age.
“Edo State government, please, Teboga is under serious threat.
“Landlords are at the verge of becoming tenants. How do you become a tenant at an old age? We beg you Mr. Governor; you can see elders sitting in the sun since morning.
“It’s gone way pass be careful. It is now an emergency. You should better declare a state of emergency in Teboga.
“It is an SOS. Please, our good governor, Mr. Obaseki, our Excellency, Philip Shaibu, the comrade, Osarodion Ogie, our dependable SSG, all the excos, you people should put heads together, intervention for Teboga is overdue”, he said.
Another resident, Mrs. Patience Osayande, said they are always apprehensive whenever it rains because of the volume of flood in the community and thus pray that none of their children should fall inside the gully.
She said she is a widow and that the government should come to her aid before the only house left for her by her late husband is being swept away by erosion.
