Commercial activities were on Thursday grounded along the Benin-Agbor expressway as residents of Ohovbe community in the Ikpoba Okha Local government Area of Edo trooped out in their numbers to protest against the deplorable state of the road.
The protesters turned the protest into a carnival as they slaughtered a cow and started cooking on the road.
The youths in the locality also turned the expressway into a football pitch blocking the entire road.
The protest which started on Wednesday, grew worse on Thursday as it fell on the community market day, thereby forcing the residents in the area to trek a very long distance to their destinations, while travellers were left stranded.
According to a Geeky Nigeria’s correspondent, Mr Omuobi Abuegwu, a trailer driver who left Lagos, heading to Onitsha but was stuck in the middle of the protest in Benin, said he was not even sure of when he was going to leave the lock jam created as a result of the protest.
Omuobi Abuegwu said ” I have been here since 9 am since yesterday. I have not even moved an inch. The residents are protesting against the bad road.
“As I speak, I have not eaten since. I am coming from Lagos and I am going to Onitsha,” he said.
A resident of the area, Prince Solomon Nnamdi, warned that the government was pushing the people of the state to their limit.
“It has been a very long time since the people have been complaining. They are pushing the people to their limit. So, we are saying that the government should wake up.
“There is money in our country and there is money in the state. Edo State is an oil-producing state. Apart from that, the IGR can do a lot of things in the state to reduce the suffering of the people.
“This road condition is affecting food prices in the market. You can see trucks parked here for days. I just saw one Hausa man sleeping under his truck.
“if such a person has foodstuffs which he is going to deliver to another state, the goods will unfortunately perish.
“If the government fails to do it, the people will rise against them,” Nnamdi warned,” he added.
Also, Mr Figo Tete, who acted as a referee during the football match on the major road, said they would remain on the major road until the state and federal governments rehabilitate the roads in the state.
