The Owa Obokun of Ijesaland,Oba Clement Adesuyi Haastrup, has pleaded with the federal government and well-meaning Nigerians to repair the Gbongan-Ife-Ilesa-Akure axis of the Ibadan-Abuja expressway, which is in terrible condition.
Oba Adesuyi Haastrup made the appeal in a chat with newsmen in Ilesa, in a reaction to the growing number of accidents on the road that cause fatalities and property damages.
Given the significance of the more than 100-kilometer road to the social, educational, and economic spheres of the southwest states, the paramount monarch of Ijesaland lamented the rising number of fatalities on the road due to its poor condition.
Oba Adesuyi Haastrup emphasised the necessity for the federal government to include the road in the 2025 supplemental budget, pointing out that the continual devaluation of the naira against the dollar caused the cost of the project to jump four times which made its construction difficult .
In order to save the lives and property of road users—many of whom were students at public and private tertiary institutions along the Ile Ife-Ifesa, Akure-Akure-i axis of the road—the first class Oba suggested that a portion of the funds allocated for the road be used for palliative measure.
Recalling his encounter while traversing the Gbongan – Ile Ife – Ife – Ilesa axis of the road before his installation, the Ajimoko III said he lost two of his bulletproof tyres and rims to a deadly pothole on the road, a situation that created a great fear in him.
He claimed that in addition to impeding Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo states' tourism potential, the road's poor condition deterred both domestic and foreign investors from establishing enterprises in these regions.
Ajimoko III, who revealed that he had alerted the Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency to the problem, insisted that the state of the road also made users vulnerable to kidnapping and robbery attacks, so everyone involved needed to act quickly.
Int: Isaac Haastrup
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