Edo: Protesting youths barricade highway over insecurity, bad roads

Edo map

Vehicular and human movement was disrupted on the Auchi-Igarra-Ibillo road on Wednesday as hundreds of youths blocked the roads over the high rate of kidnapping and poor infrastructure in the area.

The protesters complained that kidnapping had become a daily occurrence due to the dilapidated state of the road in the area.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the protest created gridlock on the road as travellers, including heavy-duty vehicles along the road were stalled for several hours.

The youths also lamented the case of a chieftain of the Labour Party, Okasime Olowojoba, who has been kidnapped for almost a month and has yet to be released despite the kidnappers already collecting over N5 m from the family and friends.

One of the protesters, Paul Lawani, said the people of the area had been neglected and the poor state of the roads had resulted in the daily kidnappings.

He said, “We cannot continue to be slaves in our country. The government should come and tell us what they are doing.

“Akoko-Edo Local Government Area has three general hospitals but none is functioning well. What is clear is that our colonial government knew the large size of Akoko-Edo, which is why it sited three general hospitals today.

“Akoko-Edo is ripe for a military base, yet we have these bases in areas that may not necessarily need them.

“Is the local government chairman not aware that there is this security challenge before he was given the job? Are they not aware that one of the reasons for this kidnapping is because of the bad roads? Instead of fixing the roads, they are mounting ‘Tinubu for 2027’ billboards.”

Continuing, he said, “We also want the state government to come and tell us what they want to do about this bad road and kidnapping.