By Jethro Ibileke
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has vowed to construct alternate roads in the state, following what he called federal government’s failure to fix its roads in the state.
He said this the need for the roads was to ensure smooth movement of goods and services across the state.
The governor who made this shocking statement while swearing in the newly elected chairmen of the 18 local government councils of the state, however, said once constructed, the roads would be barricaded and restricted for use.
According to the governor, “Today we are in a crisis in our country. What is hurting Edo the most is the advantage we have in terms of our location of being at the core of the country, and therefore being connected with a lot of roads owned by the federal government.
“The federal government as you know today lacks the capacity to manage itself not to talk about rebuilding its roads so it could take a while if ever for them to be able to build those roads.
“We fortunately have other connections so our priority with you should be to design and work with the state government to build alternative state roads.
“Infrastructure is important, we should be able to move our people with their goods and their services so that we can have development and when we build those roads, they will be barricaded and restricted for use.”
Obaseki also charged the chairmen to focus on the environment and sanitation as he said that was an area he has not been happy about in the performance of his administration.
He said: “The other area we will need to collaborate with you is in the area of the environment and sanitation. We’ve done so much in the last six, seven years but one area I am not proud of is in terms of our sanitation and environment.
“This is an area we share together. I want to Implore you to make this a priority for us because the environment is a big issue in the world today.”