Erudite lawyer and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Wednesday, gave the Federal and Ekiti State Governments knocks over the food disaster that ravaged the state capital, Monday night, sweeping one person to his death.
The elder statesman-turned-educationist said the disaster was avoidable granting the quantum of red alerts and appeals to both governments to fix the dilapidated the Ureje Bridge which links his university to Ado Ekiti, as well as the capital city to other communities in the state and Ondo State.
The ABUAD founder, who spoke in Ado Ekiti against the backdrop of the collapse of part of the bridge, a vital link, described Ekiti State as the most neglected by the Federal Government as far as road infrastructure was concerned.
Babalola said the situation was beyond the palliative measures pledged by the Deputy Governor, Otunba Adebisi Adegboyega Egbeyemi, during his visit to the collapsed bridge, stressing that the place needed a brand new bridge.
“Ekiti State is the most neglected in this country in term of roads,” Babalola emphasised. “Look at the road between Ilesha and Ado Ekiti, it was made over 100 years ago. This road from Ado Ekiti to Ijan to Ode Ekiti to Ikare Akoko (Ondo State) to Lokoja (Kogi State) was built before I was born. That narrow bridge which collapsed on Monday night was built over 100 years ago.
“During the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo, I protested in my usual way, he decided to repair the road from Ado Ekiti to Ikole, but up till now, it has not been completed. Again, Obasanjo started the road from Itawure to Ado Ekiti, a dual carriageway, it was completed except to tar it, now it is a forest, nobody will know there is road there again.
“The road from Ado Ekiti to Akure (Ondo State) is one of the worst in the country. No federal road is good in the state. What I will continue to do is to pile pressure as much as possible on those.
“For the past nine years, I have been maintaining that (Ado Ekiti – ABUAD) road. This year, after series of letters, FERMA wrote to me to inform me that they have awarded the road to a contractor.
“I have been following the contractor day and night. What I know which is true is that the contractor has done more damage to the road than helping us. I wrote about the bridge to the Federal Ministry of Works, I copied the President, I also wrote letters to the governor of the state, Dr Kayode Fayemi, because I knew that the road was neglected by the contractor and the Federal Government.
“I have been writing, phoning, sending text messages that it would collapse soon. I wrote letters warning everybody including the governor of this state that the bridge would collapse. Nothing was done about it.
“Though when it happened eventually, I also sent text to Governor Fayemi informing him that what I told him would soon happen had happened. I got in touch with the Minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola, who eventually phoned me that morning when he saw that it had collapsed. He said they were going to do something about it.
“Later in the afternoon, I got a text message from Governor Fayemi that some people would come there the following morning. Fashola told me that they were moving there immediately, so I went there and I found out that they were eventually working there.”
In his reaction, Governor Kayode Fayemi said his government had already swung into action with some remedial measures to prevent a recurrence of the disaster.
The Governor revealed this while inspecting the flood-ravaged bridge and other flooded areas in Ado-Ekiti, admitting that the collapsed bridge was too small to contain the heavy flow of water during heavy rains.