Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri
The road connecting several communities from Avu junction in Owerri West Local Government Area leading to the location of the Imo State Adapalm plantation in Ohaji/Egbema LGA, currently, has become a death trap for motorists, commuters, and residents daily plying the road, especially for agricultural purposes.
Ikengaonline visited the road and gathered that three Imo State governors had awarded this road yet there has been no significant work on it.
On a visit to the area from Avu Junction to the Adapalm plantation, it was observed that some of the agriculture-based communities that use this road include Avu, Obosima, Obokwe, Amafor, and also areas from Etekwuru, Ohuba, Umuagwo and others all in Ohaji/Egbema LGA.
Many people ply this road to reach these communities because of their farm produce, little wonder they are referred to as the “food basket of Imo State.”
Between the Avu Junction and Avu Secondary school, the road remained very bad with craters created by flooding.
Also, from there to the Obosima Junction, both sides of the road were so bad that big trucks, minibuses and motorcycles constantly were trapped inside the holes made by the heavy rains in the area.
On getting to Amafor Market, to Imo Adapalm plantation mill, the road was completely bad as motorists have continued to suffer untold hardship and their vehicles break down on the road before they could get to their destinations. It takes like another hour from Amafor Junction to Adapalm because of the bad road.
Motorists who spoke to Ikengaonline said the road, has been a “death trap” for them and they have been in this difficulty for not less than a decade.
One of them, who introduced himself as Ike Umunna, said: “Politicians will come and use this road for the campaign and after they get to power they will abandon us. The highest thing they will do for us is to come back and do a ceremony that they will construct the road after that it end there.”
Also, a motorcycle rider, who gave his name as Franklyn Ibekwe, said: “We are tired of this road. Governors will come and tell you a story about how they will construct it but at the end of the day, you will not see them again. I go to the mechanic’s workshop everyday because of this bad road. I spend a lot of money.”
Also among the affected were farmers who suffer to convey their farm produce from the farm to the markets.
According to a farmer from Obama, Mrs Bibiana Nnaji, “The most painful part of this thing is that some motorists refuse to drive into the area to assist us to carry our farm produce to the markets. Sometimes what we harvest will remain inside the bush the next day if we don’t see a motorcycle or motorists that will carry them to our houses or to the market.”
Ikengaonline gathered that, towards the tail end of his second term in office, the former governor, Rochas Okorocha, in his usual style of road construction in the state, started re-construction on the Avu Road promising to get to Imo Adapalm, but work suddenly stopped. The construction was still at the entrance of the Avu Junction. It was said that nothing significant was done on the road.
However, in August 2019, former governor Emeka Ihedioha captured the Avu Road to Imo Adapalm under his World Bank-assisted Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP). Within that period, there was not much to show for it before he was sacked by the Supreme Court in 2019.
Again, in April 2022, the current Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MUO, with the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to construct the Avu to Adapalm road but up till now, the state of the road has worsened. No construction has started on it.
