Residents of palace road in Ikpoba-Okha local government area of Edo State have called on the state government to prevail on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to complete the road project in the axis.
The inhabitants of the locality made their appeal on Wednesday during a protest at upper mission extension road in Benin City, saying that the project, which connects more than 12 communities, including the Benin bypass, was contracted to NDDC in 2014.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as “Palace road residents demand urgent repair of our road; projects are not done to specification; and NDDC, wake up from slumber.”
Robert Owen, head of the community (Odionwere), who addressed newsmen, claimed that the commission did a little job and allegedly abandoned it half way.
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He said efforts made to salvage the situation with help from residents in the area have not yielded any positive results as the flood occasioned by the abandoned road project keeps wreaking havoc in different surroundings.
“You can see the gully and no attention from the NDDC. The road was done halfway and was substandard,” he said.
Doris Osayande, a shop owner in the area, said she has lost thousands of naira worth of goods to the flood owing to the bad road.
A tricycle operator, Friday David, who plies the road on a daily basis, said he spends a greater amount of his profit to repair his tricycle because of the deplorable road condition.
An official of the commission who craved anonymity said that the person in charge of projects has gone on vacation, assuring that the issue would be investigated.
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