Awka – The Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Awka, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, has advocated probe of previous contracts awarded on the roads in the South-East region of the country.
Ezeokafor made the call when he spoke with newsmen at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, on Sunday.
He described the federal roads in the South-East as most deplorable, and called for quick intervention.
The probe, he said, would give better insight into what led to the present state of roads and set a more result-oriented template for solutions.
The bishop faulted the approach by successive government in handling the issue of federal roads maintenance and repair and other infrastructural development accruing to South-East.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
He appealed to Federal Government to urgently fix the roads, which in his words, were “death traps’’.
Ezeokafor said that further neglect of the roads in the zone could worsen the untold hardship the people experienced at the moment.
“When we talk of Enugu-Onitsha expressway, we are not happy at all, generally federal roads in the country, especially this part of the country, have been a perennial problem.
“Sometimes, you do not know who is fooling who, sometimes you will hear that they want to invite Julius Berger to construct roads here and our own people will say they prefer a certain company to carry out the construction works.
“All said and done, if the government has the will they can take a stand on whom to give the job when and how.
“Because at the end of the day it’s the Federal Government that will be blamed where it pertained to federal roads and federal facilities.
“The other day, we went to Port Harcourt for a meeting, it was a terrible, heavy grid lock on the way, if you move through Aba, no way, if you move through Elele no way.
“Unfortunately, the road from Elele in Rivers State into Port Harcourt is completed but as you enter Imo on the same road, the trouble sets in, it needs serious attention.
“One is not very happy the state of our federal roads, but the state roads are in good shape, especially in Anambra here. (NAN)