Going round Benin City, you would notice a few changes in some areas. These are not negative changes but good changes. For a couple of months, we waited for the people’s Governor to commence work in the state, and for a while, a lot of us thought that no work was going to be done.
That it was all talk, talk, talk and no work. It got to a point that the people’s Governor made it clear that he needed money to work, and that there was nothing available on ground to do the necessary work. He promised to commence work the moment the state has some money. Then the next question was how to raise money.
Taxation was listed as one of the ways to generate revenue internally.
After much complains over the percentage of tax, a meeting was held with the civil servants to enable the Governor rub minds with them.
Today we are beginning to see the light of hope burning in some areas. College Road that used to be impassible beyond the Catholic church is now through. I passed there personally in a vehicle recently and was expecting us to meet the usual obstacle but and behold I saw well constructed gutters, beautifully tarred road down to the end of it. As a matter of fact, the adjoining roads were equally being worked on, and the flood in that area channeled into the drainage system for on ward flow into the moat.
Again, a couple of months back, we drew governments attention to Goodwill / Erediauwa junction in that same area. Well, there is good news from that end also. That terribly bad sport which threatened to cut off the people in Ogbe-Ibuya, Trade fare and Goodwill and environ has been repaired. Car owners and pedestrians can now pass with ease. More so, the moat around that area which was formerly blocked has been opened up as well. The residents of that area can now breath a sigh of relief.
Further more, there is an ongoing work at Dumez Road. Sources say that Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area is responsible for that one. Any one who has lived in Benin for about ten years and has been to Sapele road would confirm that Dumez Road has been an abandoned project for some time. Some years back, work was done on that road and people only enjoyed it for a short while, the project was poorly done and some parts not completed. The drainage system was blocked and the flood became so heavy that an entire school had to quit for the elements. I am talking about Dumez junction, Sapele road here in Benin. I cant say for sure where they relocated the teachers and pupils to, but they are no longer there today. The school was completely overtaken by flood.
However, not too long ago Governor Oshiomhole went to check out that road in company of Ikpoba Okha Local Government Council’s chairperson Mrs. Itohan Osalon and today we can see some work going on there. We hope they complete the project and hopefully life would come back to that school. We equally understand they are working on a drainage system there.
Nevertheless, we would like to use this medium to appeal to Ikpoba Okha Local Government chairperson to work on St Maria Garrett Girls Grammar school road up to Dumez road junction to make it worth while. The state government on the other hand should work on Upper Sakpoba road right from 3rd junction. All these would make a lot of difference in that whole area.
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