The Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) has called on the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, to take decisive, urgent and immediate actions toward rehabilitating decrepit and deplorable Federal Housing, 3-3, Nkwelle, Otuocha, Niger Street, Ziks Avenue , Nnobi-Awka Etiti-Igboukwu roads.
This was contained in a press statement themed “Let us bring hope to this hopeless situation” endorsed by Comrades Vincent Ezekwueme and Chidi Mbah, the Chairman and Secretary respectively, as well as Vincent Udeh, and made available to News Band.
In the statement, the CLP noted that it is very painful and unbearable that residents spend more than three hours every day from Nkwelle, to 3-3, to Eggerton Street Onitsha, leading to monumental increase in the transport fare as well as wear and tear of vehicles due to bad roads, huge economic loses, increase in prizes of goods and services and loss of precious time.
“His excellency, it is on record your citizens trek to their homes due to unprecedented traffic; sometimes they sleep in their friends’ houses.
“Your Commissioner for Works and Environments should come out of their comfort zone and pay on the spot assessments visits to the roads to see and know the extent of dilapidated and inaccessible roads and prefer immediate palliatives measures toward rehabilitating the roads,” it reads.
The CLO, meanwhile, asked Governor Soludo to reconstitute Anambra Roads Maintenance Agency and take seriously constructive criticisms and discard with great disdains services of sycophants who tell him want he wants to hear and not what he need to know and do for the betterment of the citizens.
It equally commends his relentless efforts to tackle security challenges bedeviling the state, as well as numerous roads projects you recently awarded despite limited resources of the state.
“It will be a step in the right direction and a welcome development to constitute Projects, Policies Evaluation and Monitoring Committee with the directive of reporting the extent of compliance with government policies and programmes and impacts to the citizens and visitors.
It is existential reality that the ban on collections of levies from hawkers, petty traders, wheel barrow, trucks and cart pushers are observed in breach.
“Unfortunately, collections of illegal and unaccounted levies in markets and roads have become order of the day.
“We have, on a daily basis, received torrents of complaints from citizens and visitors over unbridled exploitation and extortion by touts and illegal revenue agents and their sponsors.
“Concerted efforts should be made to rescue the situation and restore normalcy and averts state of lawlessness,” it concluded. Read more.