EDITORIAL: ABROMA, OKALI OKOCHI HAVE FAILED NDI ABIA

The Abia State Road Maintenance Agency (ABROMA) is an agency of the state government established with the core mandate of maintaining our roads and ensuring that they are in good shape at all times.

Part of this road maintenance, is fixing the uncountable potholes on our roads and making it more motorable for motorists plying on it to experience a good atmosphere when driving.

However, indications have since shown that this all-important agency have deviated from its many functions and obligations. As at today, our roads are now in dilapidated state which has made it to become an eyesore and a harrowing experience for motorists.

There are potholes everywhere in Aba/Umuahia and even on the all-important Bank Road leading to Abia State Government house, this is outside the fact that the ineffectiveness of ABROMA as an agency, has made it not to have the interest of the people at heart.

From the look of things, ABROMA has totally failed in its mandate and there is the need for an urgent overhaul of this agency. This agency, has put so many lives on the line and remained nonchalant on the plight of pedestrians and motorists who remain the end users of the so many potholes on our road.

Apart from the fact that this agency collects money from villagers for the grading of their roads, the question is, why have ABROMA abandoned Umuahia the state capital and have refused to rid it of potholes? This is indeed the appropriate time to call the General Manager Engr. Okali Okochi to order, in order to find out from him why things have gone wrong in ABROMA under his watch.

It is alleged that ABROMA under the watch of Engr. Okochi collects large sums of money ranging from Five Hundred Thousand Naira to Two Million naira from communities and villages to grade their roads using the recently handed over heavy duty equipment’s and we wonder who he accounts to.

With these sums of money allegedly collected from so many communities, fixing potholes in the capital city will not have been a problem if indeed the interest of Engr Okochi is to add value and help Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu achieve his dreams of a better state.

This is very important because even staff of the Agency have on several occasion, lamented on the non payment of their salaries for 29 months. In an interview with a staff of the Agency recently, he lamented  that the General Manager does not have their interest at heart, this is even as he claimed that he (the GM)  now turned the agencies equipment as his personal property, by using it to generate huge sum of money into his private pocket.

If with all sincerity, we wish to make our state a better place to leave, work and contribute to it’s over all development, then something needs to be done in order to give the state a good face lift.

The road in Aba and Umuahia must be fixed and made working in good shape. Umuahia the state capital is gradually losing its grip on the hold of what a capital city should be, this is simply because the agency with the mandate to fix the roads and maintain it at all times have failed.

From all indication, ABROMA lacks the effectiveness to continue to maintain our roads therefore the state government in its wisdom should do things very fast and urgently too to address this ugly situation so as to complement on the already good works Governor Okezie Ikpeazu have begun, especially in Environmental Sanitation across the state.