Agony: Drivers, Commuters Sleep On East-West Road

The sorry state of the Eleme section of the East-West has continued to take a toll on motorists, commuters and truckers that use that section of the road daily.
Since the first week of July when some articulated vehicles overturned and blocked sections of the road towards Trailer Park and near the gate of Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals complex, the road had virtually been blocked, easing out only in the early mornings.
The result is that many people traveling through that road to Akwa Ibom, Cross River and parts of Rivers State beyond Eleme either had to sleep in their vehicles or trek long distances to board other vehicles on the other side of the traffic jam.
The cause of the traffic jam is the worsening state of the road, which had continued to degenerate since the 2023 rainy season started.
An Ogoni activist, Rev. Probel Williams, said he has become frustrated over the state of the road after getting repeated assurances from the Federal Government that the road would be reconstructed in the last two years.
Williams, who was one of the leaders of the protesting people of Ogoni that met with the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs in Abuja after Eleme youths blocked the road in protest for one week in 2021, said, “We had a robust meeting with the federal government regarding the dilapidated state of the East-West Road. And up till now, nothing has happened,” he lamented.
Williams, who is the leader of Ogoni Peoples Assembly (OPA), said the problem with the road is not about promises or where to source the fund. “It is about implementation. After all the speeches that were made, the news that followed it on radio and newspapers, there has not been any implementation.
“The federal government’s promise was a ray of hope for our people and tens of thousands of others who ply the road on a daily basis. It is disheartening to see that one year after, we are still grappling with the same issues. Businesses are suffering due to constant delays and damaged vehicles, and our daily commuting has become a nightmare,” he said.
Other road users that spoke to National Point expressed shock that despite the attention the road has received about its deplorable state, not even the federal government and the state government had found it worthwhile to intervene and recover the road.
“People die on this road everyday because when you want to rush anybody on emergency from Ogoniland to the hospital in Port Harcourt before they get there, they die on the way because of the traffic jam,” one commuter said.
Youths in the area had blocked the road in 2021 to draw attention to its reconstruction. After a week, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs then, Senator Godswill Akpabio, met with their leaders and promised to start work on the road. The sum of N2.5 billion was released to pay owners of properties on affected parts of the road that was to be expanded.
Later on, the road was moved from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to the Federal Ministry of Works, which was to supervise its reconstruction under a special funding programme. But last year, the Presidency directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to take over the reconstruction of the road. Since then, nothing more had been heard on the project. There is a new federal government in place now and the federal cabinet has not yet been reconstituted.