By Chidera Eke, October 4, 2024.News/Interview
ABUJA-The Senator Representing Delta Central Senatorial district, Chief Ede Dafinone has said, the tanker explosion that took place during the diminutive hours of October 1, a day the country marked her 63rd independence anniversary was unfortunate, stressing however, the need for President Bola Tinubu led Federal government to urgently fix the road.
Sen. Ede Dafinone, with the African Gold Merit he received in honour of his late Father, Sen. David Dafinone last year in Warri.
It could be recalled that the Benin-Sapele road where travelers numbering five died last Sunday in a multiple auto crash involving a heavy loaded tanker with petrol as over 15 commercial and private vehicles were burnt beyond recognition, which drew national outcry.
According to report, the tanker was said to have fallen on its own while curving through the pitful portion of the roads between Ologbo in Edo State and Koko in Delta State, which resulted to the explosion of the Tanker as it flamed up, causing traffic jam while razed nearby vehicles.
Meanwhile, Sen. Dafinone who spoke on AriseTV Morning Show, monitored by our Editor, Mark Orgu, expressed his condolences to the affected families that lost their lives while reiterating the efforts made to fix the roads, even as he confirmed that police report puts casualties of the incident as five while millions of naira worth of properties were lost and damaged. He also assured that government will fix the roads as talks are ongoing:
“I will continue to draw attention of government agencies on the need to have repair work on the road. In fact, in July, I wrote to Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Federal Ministry of works, drawing attention to the failed portion of the road, and asking for those agencies to report back on what work has been done and what plan they have- whether to get the roads repaired.”
The Senator, however, said that the Agencies have replied him, which shows that they are focusing on repairing these roads. This is even as he attests that he has made attempts in the Upper Chamber on the deplorable situation,
“I have reported largely on the floor of the Senate on the problem of the bad roads , to the extent that all the Senators were reporting same failed roads in major part of the country.”
The first time Senator hinted the resolution of the Senate which mandated, that all bad roads that needs urgent attention should be compiled and forwarded to the Federal government. According to Dafinone, the Current Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, was still in the Senate; he therefore bestowed his confidence on him:
“I am very happy to say that, Senator Dave Umahi, the former Governor of Ebonyi State is one of us, and who was present when this document was submitted, is now the Minister of Works and he has a reputation of getting work done. So, in terms of hope of the roads been repaired, and in terms of scarce resources, government will allocate appropriately. I believe in the ability of Senator Umahi who has extra ordinary track records, and I have every confident that he would get the job done.”
The roads should not be allowed to get to the condition where there are no roads. “Indeed, there is no road in Ologbo junction , absolutely, no road . Government should focus on emergency repairs of roads”. The roads fall within my jurisdiction and my region, so we want to see more resources devoted to those roads. Yes, the road from Sapele to Benin is terribly bad, a road that should take maybe, one hour is taking two to three hours” he lamented.
Corroboration with NDDC
In term of solutions, I have written to NDDC recognizing them as an intervention agency that can probably contribute as one of the solutions. They have put in their budget for 2024 to tackle such problems. I am not at liberty to go into details but they are looking at various ways of solutions, including partnership with stakeholders and oil companies to get the job done. I tell you, the roads will be their major focus come 2024.
Sapele Port
It is an ideal examples, going into the 60s, 70s, even at early 80s, Sapele was a happening town. There were very few Urhobo people who did not schooled in Sapele, that was how commercialized the town was then. How can we bring it back. Now, among the promises made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was campaigning, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, when he was also campaigning to be Governor of our State, and myself, was to reinvigorate Port within Delta Central, particularly, Sapele Port. The Port is being used by Navy on loan and it is our feeling that if we can make the Port as a daily economy activity, which will include to receive goods from abroad, and other fruitful business, that will bring back the glory of Sapele where I come from in Delta Central
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