Residents of Ediene Ikot Obio Imo community in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital have decried incessant accidents in an area that has claimed many lives following the diversion of the Abak road to pave way for the ongoing construction of a flyover.
They lamented that the state of the road which leads to Abak town and other communities has worsened with the heavy-duty trucks using the diversion thus causing many car crashes.
The contract for the flyover at Ikot Oku Ikono Junction along Abak was awarded to congest traffic around the roundabout and to consolidate the ongoing dualization project of the Uyo-Etinan road.
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Speaking on the state of the road following the diversion, Augustine Edwin Udoh, the village head of Nunng Udoe Edirne said in addition to the number of accidents witnessed daily, the road, has been destroyed and the community almost submerged.
The royal father who regretted that the adjourning Idoro road was constructed and dualized with a very high elevation but without drainage, said the ongoing construction work at Ediene Ikot Akpan has also diverted heavy volume of floodwater into the community in addition to the heavy traffic.
“From the junction, all the heavy heavy-duty trucks from Cross Rivers State to Abak, Ikot Abasi, and even Port Harcourt are diverted into our community.
“That is why we now have frequent cases of accidents. As we speak, smaller vehicles can no longer pass through there, because the heavy trucks have badly damaged the roads.
“We have written several letters to Julius Berger, the construction company handling the flyover to come and take care of the deplorable state of the road.
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” Our situation is peculiar because we have flood coming in from the dualized Idoro road, flood diverted from ongoing road construction at Ikot Akpan Ediene and from this heavy traffic diverted into our community. We are almost submerged!
“I will mobilize my community to block our roads if the construction firm fails to take steps to maintain them. We are not against development, but we cannot continue to fold our arms and watch our communities submerged. Akwa Ibom State government should not continue to ignore our community,” he said.
He regretted that the construction company had further provoked hostility from the community through the sack of the only two members of the community engaged in the construction of the flyover. “How do they think we feel to watch outsiders come in to work in our community while the only two youths engaged from here were the only ones affected by COVID-19 redundancy?”, he queried.
