Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

A civil society group, The Voice to the People Partners (V2P) has decried the deplorable state of roads in Anambra State and urged the government to take urgent steps to rehabilitate broken down roads to ameliorate the sufferings of commuters.

The V2P comprises the Justice and Development Caritas (JDPC); Onitsha and Nnewi, Hope Givers Initiative(HOGI) and The Civil Rights Concern ( CRC).

In a press briefing at the Catholic Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha, yesterday, the group lamented that  the sorry state of roads had led to several accident and  loss of lives as well as loss of man-hours in traffic by commuters.

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Spokesperson for V2P, Mrs. Onyeka Udegbunam, said in the past they had praised the government for connecting  communities with good roads, but that  in recent months the state had witness a rise in number of collapses roads necessitating criticism.

“The conditions of many roads are deplorable; from Ayamelum to Onitsha, Nnewi, Ekwulobia, Awka,  Onitsha, Awka, the story is the same. Both newly constructed roads and those that require maintenance have collapsed.”

The group demanded that government put in place the mechanism to maintain roads  that it invested  huge sums of money to construct.

“V2P carried out evidence based assessment across local government areas  in Anambra and came up with the conclusion that attention must be given to collapsed roads. The costs are very high in terms of re-construction, and the pains and cost to maintenance of vehicles to commuters and others that come to do business is enormous.  We are making an appeal to the government to look into these roads,” Udegbunam said.