Victor Ogunje
The residents of Ijan Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State, have raised the alarm that the town and other communities in the council were being cut off from Ado Ekiti, the capital city due to the collapsed of a linking bridge.
The bridge, which is located in front of Saint Paul’s Anglican Primary School in the heart of the town, collapsed on Saturday due to torrential downpour and gully erosion.
The terrible situation happened barely two weeks the town lost its monarch and Onijan of Ijan Ekiti, Oba Oyewole Fadahunsi, who joined his ancestors after reigning for 19 years.
Some of the towns that have found it difficult to access Ado Ekiti collapse of the bridge are Ijan, Iluomoba, Agbado, Aisegba, Imesi and Ode Ekiti, as well those traveling out of the state to Ondo, Kogi States and the Federal Capital Territory.
The bridge that was built before Ekiti State was created from the old Ondo State, was said to have caved in due to persistent erosion and overflow of water in that axis.
Another factor identified as the root cause of the collapse was the increasing movements of heavy duty vehicles along Ado-Ijan-Omuo-Kabba-Abuja federal road in recent time.
The incident has affected free follow of vehicles along the route as motorists had to resort to other alternative roads in order to manoeuvre their ways from Ijan to Iluomoba up to Irun in Ondo State.
A similar incident was witnessed in 2019 along Erio-Efon-Iwaraja Road in Ekiti West Local Government Area but was quickly remedied by the swift intervention of the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Hon. Femi Bamisile.
Bamisile is representing Gbonyin/ Ekiti East/Ensure Federal Constituency in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, which Ijan Ekiti is one of the constituent towns.
Regretting the situation, the Osodi of Ijan Ekiti, Mr. Kehinde Ojo, appealed to the federal and state governments to promptly reconstruct the collapsed bridge in order to restore normalcy on that road.
Ojo, who is the acting traditional head of Ijan Ekiti, pending the appointment of a regent to superintend over the town, said that a letter has been written to the state government on the need to take prompt action on the collapsed bridge.
Ojo said: “As we speak now, traffic along that route had been altered and affected. Economic activities are also being affected because some of the vehicles carrying agriculture products to the market centres are affected.
“We should also look at the environment hazard the portion poses to our people being in the heart of the town. The surroundings are being degraded due to erosion and this should not be allowed to continue.”
A member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mr. Talabi Adeyemo, regretted that the collapse of the bridge has been reducing their income and causing colossal damage to vehicles.
