Motorists in Benue Decry State of Oweto-Otukpo Federal Road

George Okoh

Motorist and commuters have decried the poor state of the Oweto-Otukpo Road that is impeding free flow of traffic and causing avoidable accidents.

Motorists plying the corridor have also complained over the regular damage done to their vehicles by the road that is riddled with pothole.

A commuter, who is also a pharmacist that plied the road recently, Mr. Robert Idoko, yesterday described how potholes and craters have littered several portions of the road.

Idoko said that drivers were seen making effort to avoid potholes and slowing down to navigate some spots they could not escape.

He called on members of the National Assembly from the Benue South to come together and lobby for the repair of the road.

Idoko, who is a former Chairman of Okpokwu Local Government Area, said that the entire portion would fail if nothing is done soon about the road, which he said could cutoff the area from the newly constructed Oweto Bridge.

He said: “The number of accident on the road has made the road a death trap, which is endangering lives and properties.”

He added that the Nigerian economy is losing several billion of Naira to the state of the road.

The Oweto-Otukpo road leads from the north to the southern part of the country.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Benue State,  Hyacinth Alia, has commended the federal government for awarding contracts to rehabilitate federal roads in Benue State.

Alia also assured the people  that the state would witness the construction and rehabilitation of more road networks across  under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He gave the assurance after the federal government had approved the rehabilitation of some key federal roads across the state. 

The federal roads to be rehabilitated are the Aliade-Gboko- Yandev Road; Gboko- Lessel- Ihugh- Tse Mker Road and the Oju-Otukpo Road.

The governor disclosed that he is in constant contact with the federal government for speedy completion of the Makurdi-Ugbema Road, as well as the rehabilitation of some failed portions of the Katsina-Ala-Vandeikya- Ogoja Road.

He further stated that apart from the ongoing construction of roads/streets within Makurdi metropolis, some other metropolis in the state including, Gboko, Otukpo and Katsina-Ala would soon receive similar attention, adding that opening of rural roads also featured prominently in the plans.

The governor called for more support for his administration as well as that of the Tinubu’s led federal government to enable them to deliver good democratic dividends.