Motorists and other road users have commended the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) as it stepped up action on the rehabilitation of federal roads in the Oke-Ogun axis of Oyo State.
Maintenance of the federal roads in the area was put on hold for a while a due to reported cases of kidnapping, banditry and other vices.
But the agency, disturbed by the reported cases of road crashes and other occurrences attributed to the deplorable state of roads in the state, resumed the rehabilitation of roads in the Oke-Ogun axis.
FERMA, at weekend, kicked off rehabilitation works on Kishi and Ago-Are/Saki roads, a project that is being executed through direct labour.
The rehabilitation exercise, according to some of the motorists, would drastically reduce the reported carnage on the roads and as well reduce the cost of transporting farm produce to the various markets in the area.
A leader of the motorists, Abdulraman Maruf Abiola, commended FERMA for its decision to resume rehabilitation of federal roads in Oke-Ogun, described the intervention as a welcome development.
“The state of the roads in the Oke-Ogun area is appalling. The situation has resulted in the geometric increase on the prices of commodities as well the reported cases of the crashes on the roads.
“The cost of transporting the farm produces to the neighbouring markets, in recent times, have witnessed a geometric increase as a result of the deplorable condition of the roads.
“Also, most of the road crashes recorded in the area have been attributed to the deplorable condition of the roads.
“However, with the intervention of FERMA, there will be drastic reduction in the reported cases,” he said.
Abiola further stated that periodic rehabilitation of some of the roads in Oke-Ogun will reduce reported cases of road accident, high cost of transportation and other mishaps.
He said there were other bad portions of the Kishi/Igbeti Road that needed to be fixed, and pleaded for the intervention of FERMA and other relevant agencies, both at the state and federal levels.
In his remarks, Engineer Olutunde Adepoju FERMA, Oyo State Field Office, blamed the neglect of the federal roads in the Oke-Ogun axis on insecurity.
He lamented that most of the roads being rehabilitated were constructed around 1979 and 1980, adding that they have not been adequately maintained by the users.
“Maintenance is one of the things that we are lacking in anything that we do. We need to come back to that basis to ensure that all these items are being attended to at the appropriate time,” Adepoju said.
He stated that the President Bola Tinubu administration was already working on roads and ensure that things are done the way it ought to be.
“The main constraint is finance and I believe that the House of Representatives Chairman on FERMA, Honourable Remi Oseni, together with all other members of the Senate Committee on FERMA are already working on how to increase the allocation given to the agency.
“There is nothing we can do if fund is not available and I believe that all those who are concerned are already advocating for it. We just pray that God will continue to help the president with the reform the New Hope Agenda is pursuing.
“We are currently working at Kishi Town and the total area we are covering is about 1,110 square metres which is approximately about 111 metres of asphalt.
“More or less, what we are doing here is sectional repairs. Our own concern is how to make the road motorable for the community. So we have to carry out the rehabilitation of the place.
“Like I told you, it is a sectional repair within the corridor as you all know. From here, we will move to Ago-Are. Ago-Are axis spans from Iseyin. The total kilometre is about 306 kilometres of road.
“The section we are repairing currently is about 268 kilometres and our own work we have only covered approximately two kilometres that we are currently repairing,” he said.
