Armed with placards with different inscriptions, scores of lawyers under the aegis of Nigerian Bar Association, Ota Branch, Ogun State, on Thursday morning abandoned the courtrooms to protest over the failed roads in the state.

Their placards bore inscriptions such as ‘FG, stop killing people instalmentally via bad roads’, Spending hours from Ota to Abeokuta is killing’, ‘FG, where are billions budgeted for our roads?’, Bad roads have turned many children to orphans’, Ota Roads: Hell on earth’, ‘Gov Dapo Abiodun: Right the wrongs of past governors meted against Ota and its environs’, and Lafenwa-Itele Roads are death traps among others.

The peaceful protest was led by the branch chairman, Isaac Ogbah.

Ogbah said all roads in the state were impassable, causing hardship for them and residents of the state.

He later led his colleagues on a march starting from the Roundabout in front of the Ansar’deen Secondary School, Ota, moving to Sango under bridge to Joju, and Oju Ore and back to the starting point.

They also made a stopover at the palace of Olota of Ota and the secretariat of the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area, where a copy each of the press statement on the bad roads were dropped.

The head of Local Government administration of Ado Odo/Ota LGA, Olasubomi Ayorinde, got a copy for onward transmission to the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun.

Ogbah and some of the executive officers of the association addressed the people at these various points, calling on the state and Federal governments to do something urgently about the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Sango-Idiroko Road, Atan-Lusada Road, Ijoko and Lafenwa-Itele Road among others.

He said as lawyers living and practising in Ota and its environs, it became necessary to give direction to the people and ensure the advancement of the cause of the country.

He said:

“There is no good road in Ogun State. All the roads have failed. The lawyers and judges don’t get to courts on time due to the condition of these roads. The residents too are suffering.

“Researches have shown that the road network in Nigeria is about 194,000kms, many of these roads are bad, owing to the carelessness of the concerned authorities.

“In many instances, though budget allocations are made, nothing reasonable happens at the end of the day.

“Among the major bad roads that are of utmost concern are the Sango-Ota-Owode-Idiroko Expressway, Atan-Agbara -Lusada Expressway, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway among others.

“We are giving the state and the Federal Governments 14 days to make specific statement on these roads. After 14 days if we don’t hear from them , we shall move to the next phase.”

Ogbah who said good roads enhance economic prosperity, good health, security and ensure improvement in the living standard of the people, noted that most roads within Ota axis were in terrible state.

He commended the state government for its intervention in reconstructing the Ota-Ikola -AIT Road, however, stating that Anglican Road, Ota-Ilogbo Road, Sango-Ijoko Road, Alagbola -Akute-Lambe Road were in terrible shape.

Ogbah lamented that the Federal Government was reported to have awarded the total rehabilitation of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to Julius Berger Plc, unfortunately, no substantial had been done on the road.

“It now takes an average of between three and four hours to get to Abeokuta from Ota. There have been days that commuters and motorists spent up to six hours at a spot at the Iyana-Ilogbo area.

“While we do not have the numbers of deaths on these bad roads, we know that everyday people’s health is being impaired.”

PUNCH