Osun State Government on Tuesday explained that it embarked on the rehabilitation of 25 roads across the state with a view to boosting economy and make life comfortable for residents of the state.
According to reports, some of the roads which are currently undergoing rehabilitation and repairs included some federal and state roads, which had been abandoned for years.
It was learnt that the roads are being rehabilitated through the intervention of the state government, under the leadership of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Engineer Olatoke Olaniyan, General Manager, Osun Road Maintenance Agency, ORMA Engr. Shola Ajao and Commissioner for Information and Civil Orientation, Mrs Funke Egbemode among other governemnt officials, on Tuesday, visited some of the roads being rehabilitated to ascertain the level of work done on them.
Among the roads visited are; Bowen University Oyo Road in Iwo, Ikirun/Iree-Eripa road, Eripa Otanayegbaju/Ila-Orangun road, among others.
Speaking during the inspection tour, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Engineer Olatoke Olaniyan said the road construction which had been abandoned by the federal government could not be left unattended to, as the people of the state bear the brunt.
“The duty of any government is to see to the welfare of its citizens, whether the road belongs to the federal government or any other tiers, if the situation requires that the state intervenes, a responsible government will do so.
“For a long time now, this road had been virtually abandoned. The stretch that passes through the town actually divides the town into two.
“The Governor directed that, in order to ameliorate the suffering of the citizens, we should come in here and fix the bad portions” he said.
Engr. Olaniyan who further explained that the state government was unable to get an approval from the Federal Government for the rehabilitation of federal roads, after repeated efforts, stated that the state government would bear the cost, and that the repairs is being done with a view to ameliorate the suffering of the people.
“What we are doing here is to spot-patch and spot-rehabilite the portions of the road so that we can restore normalcy for movement of vehicles and human traffic.
“We have tried repeatedly to seek the attention of the FG to fix this roads, perhaps due to issues that are not making things easy for them to come over, we haven’t gotten the needed response, but if we are waiting for that, it means we are going to send our people into long years of suffering.
“Even if we are going to bear the cost, as long as it makes our people comfortable and improves their socioeconomic wellbeing, the State government is happy to do it.” he said
Speaking at the inspection tour of the ongoing rehabilitation works at the Ikirun/Obaagun/Ire, Otan/Ila axis, the General Manager, Osun Road Maintenance Agency (ORMA) Engr. Shola Ajao, said the road intervention project is spread across the state and that they would be completed before the rainy season.
On the Iwo road project intervention, Ajao stated that the government is fixing the Awe Junction/Bowen University axis for smooth human and vehicular movement.
He added, “We have divided the state into six zones, we have Ikirun/Ila, Iwo/Ejigbo, Ife/Ijesha, Osogbo/Ede and Gbongan/Ikire and others. We have spread it across the nooks and crannies of the state.
“We will complete the project before rainy season and that is why we are working day and night to ensure that all areas mapped out are completed.”