Erosion is threatening to cut off more than 17 communities on the Anambra–Kogi–Abuja highway, The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday.
The highway, currently under construction, is the only road that communities in Anambra West Local Government ply to go to Otuocha, Onitsha and other parts of the state.
Members of the communities and their leaders have therefore called on the Federal Government to intervene immediately by completing the road.
The Anambra State Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Ngozika Okoye, who is from the area, told our correspondent that members of the communities had made several representations to the authorities to intervene in fixing the road.
She said, "It is urgent. It is an important road. It will cost more if help comes too late. We are crying now because we are used to letting things get too bad then we begin to pay a costly price for our negligence."
The Senior Special Assistant to the Anambra State Governor on Special Duties, Mr. Tony Nwabunwanne, said his principal, who had visited the sites had offered to pay the contractor to correct the defects to save the road.
He said, "But as I speak with you, the contractors have not given him the quotations. They said they are waiting for approval from the Federal Ministry of Works before they can give the cost to the governor."
A member of the state House of Assembly representing Anambra West, Mr. Victor Okoye, pleaded with the Federal Government and the state government to help make the road motorable up to Inoma, the border town with Kogi State.
He said, "All the money sunk in here will be a waste if an immediate intervention is not done. As it is now, we cannot access the local government headquarters at Nzam except by boat through the River Niger."
The Punch
Erosion is threatening so many areas in Nigeria all bcos of this heavy rain that fall all the time. It aint really funny anymore at all.