Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road: Agony as commuters, residents send SOS to FG

By Adeleye Kunle

The Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road has remained a nightmare for commuters.

Track News reports that many homes within Abia, Akwa-Ibom States and beyond have lost beloved family members and friends in fatal road accidents as a result of the bad road.

Worst hit are commercial drivers who always convey travellers to and from Akwa Ibom and Cross River States from Umuahia, the Abia State capital.They face severe difficulties while accessing the dilapidated road.

Late last year, Miss Chidinma Ogbonna, a final year student of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, in Abia State, of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management, was crushed to death on the same Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road by a trailer driver. The incident threw the management and the entire students of the federal university into mourning, pain and agony.

Earlier before the unfortunate death of Chidinma, similar ugly tragedies have also occurred at different sections of the road, a development that led to protest from the university students.

The students barricaded all the routes that led to the bad road, refusing commuters access.

The management of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia State has also not been left out in expressing concern over the state of the road