Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
A group, Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders Foundation (HURIDE), has claimed that no fewer than 5,000 persons die every year in the South-East as a result of bad roads in the region.
It described many of the roads in the zone as death traps.
He accused the Federal Government of paying lips service to the construction of South-East roads, lamenting that the much-celebrated Enugu-Onitsha Expressway is still in a deplorable condition even after some failed portions were rehabilitated.
Uzor said the roads could only be compared with that of war-torn countries like South Sudan, Somalia, Eriterea among others.
He listed some of the roads to include the Enugu-Porthacourt road, the 9th Mile Corner-Oturkpo road, Onitsha-Owerri, Enugu-Abakiliki, Owerri-Aba-Port Hacourt, Ihiala-Orlu-Umuahia, Akokwa-Urualla-Umuchima-Ihioma-Amaifeke linking Banana Junction via Owerri and the Onitsha-Otuocha-Adani-Nsukkka road abandoned since 1983.
The group urged federal and state governments to declare state of emergency on roads in the area to preserve lives being claimed by accidents, armed robbery and kidnapping due to dilapidated roads.
In a statement by its chairman, Dede Uzor, the group called on both federal and state governments in the South East to take drastic palliative measures to address the problem.
“Governors should, as a matter of urgency, wake up and rise to their statutory responsibilities. If these roads are in good shape, they will boost the economic activities of the zone.”
Uzor accused governors of South East of not doing enough to improve the lives through massive road construction, employments and youths empowerments.
He warned that if the situation persisted, the group would have no other option than to mobilise people across the zone to protest the “inactivity, indifference and insensitivity of the leaders to the plight of the defenceless people of the zone.”