Living in Ekpoma is Suffering and Smiling because the Government is far from the Town.

Ekpoma dilapidated  road

By Prince Kelly O. Udebhulu.

"All the roads are totally dilapidated; there is no exemption."

Ekpoma, the commercial nerve centre and the university town of Edo state, is lying prostrate, in ut­ter ruins. It is in shackles, bruised and battered. And no one seems to care. Worse still, the government representatives from the area have been unarguably weak. So, they see no evil and speak no evil because they are afraid of the instincts that they serve. Ekpoma has fallen from grace to grass. It has lost its former glory that dressed it in the admirable robe of the Bendel state's university town. There is no side you can mention and say it is better than the other in Ekpoma.

Late Prof. Ambrose Alli weeps daily from Heaven as he sees his legacies buried in a hurry. The vibrancy that defined the town is gone and the once thriving town is a shadow of itself. Today, Ekpoma is a terrible and indescribable sight. Anyone who knew Ekpoma when it was blazing in glory would weep at the present state of things. Indeed, words are not enough to capture the present state of the once famous town.

“They (pictures) speak for themselves.” And, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
The popular Ekpoma market is an eye sore. One of the heart-rending scenes is in Ekpoma roads around market round about and union bank where traders display their wares amid the putrid seepage from rotten wastes overflowing the road. There, maggots and flies dance on vegetables and other edibles on sale. Take this: Epidemic is imminent in Ekpoma as sewage flowing down dirty streets is a common sight. It is a wonder how human beings do business under such atmosphere especially when it rains. But they have no other options.

Dilapidated roads: Coming into Ekpoma, you soon discover that something is wrong. To start with, it is not a tea party entering into the town from any point, as all the roads linking it are in terrible condition. The Benin/ Auchi/Okene road is deplorably bad. As soon as you enter Ekpoma axis of the road, you begin to navigate through the valley of the shadow of death. And the fear of evil will be your portion be­cause the area is criminals’ den. In fact, the road is impassable, so drivers drive with the belief that the government is far from Ekpoma.

In the rainy season, Ekpoma is floating, so to say. Most of the roads are flood-prone because there are no drainages and where they exist, they have been blocked.

So, with nowhere to go, the ensuing floods take over the streets and es­cape into homes and business premises. As a matter of fact, some streets have turned to river in Ekpoma. One of the ‘rivers’ is found on the Ihumudumu road by GTbank which leads to Ujemen and Iruekpen towns.

On a rainy day and several hours after the rains, a speedboat can conveniently ply the roads and while the flood lasts, traders at Ekpoma close shops, otherwise their wares will be submerged and destroyed. Many sources disclosed that many people have lost their lives in the potholes while several others had sustained debilitating injuries.

Today, going to Ekpoma through any road is an agonizing experience because a journey of few minutes can last for hours because of the terrible condition of the roads, resulting in traffic bottleneck. The popular Opoji junction along Benin /Auchi road is a scene from the pit of hell.

Like most parts of Ekpoma, you cannot wear shoes when leaving homes. The reason is that all the surroundings are flooded. The only way out is to remove your shoes and fold your trousers, wrappers or skirt to knee length and trek. In fact, when the heavens open up, bike riders disappear because, if they don’t, their motor bikes will be submerged.

At Big Joe motor park and J5 junction near former university guest house at Ikhiro road junction along Benin /Auchi road, it should pass as one of the worst pothole roads on the face of the earth. There, vehicles are trapped every day. In fact, only trucks and other big vehicles ply the road. A car can easily be buried in the gullies on the road and when it happens, the army of jobless young men in the area will jump into the muddy water and push out the trapped vehicle for a fee. They call it, ‘self empowerment or Devel’. Borehole road junction near Esan west local government secretariat also needs a special mention in ignominy.

We have Senator. We have House of Representatives and State House of Assembly members. Ekpoma has produced so many successful people in various spheres of life. Ekpoma is not supposed to be abandoned just like that.

So, I’m begging the State and Federal Government to come to our aid because Ekpoma is an important town that has the potential of turning around the fortunes of the country in terms of manpower and technical know-how in agriculture.