By Christian Njoku
CALABAR (NAN, CONVERSEER) – Motorists in Calabar have decried the deplorable state of Etta-Agbor Road, one of the busiest roads in the state capital.
The drivers who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in different interviews on Thursday in Calabar said the state of the road was making commuting difficult.
NAN reports that the Etta-Agbor Road spans from Etta-Agbor Roundabout to Orok Orok junction and it’s a busy road that connects to the University of Calabar (UNICAL), University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).
The road is also important because it links the Calabar Municipal Area Council to Calabar South Area Council.
Speaking on the state of the road, Mr Adam Ume said that the deplorable state started from small potholes and has grown into massive gaping holes that keep obstructing traffic flow.
“The huge potholes at the Akim junction on both lanes of the Etta Agbor Road, another set of deep potholes around the small gate area of UniCal, were becoming annoying as they obstruct the free flow of traffic,” he said.
Ume said another painful aspect of the road was the fact that there were traffic lights on the road that could no longer effectively control traffic due to the state of the road.
He said that before motorists navigated their way through the deep potholes, the light changed leaving a long line of vehicles that created a mini traffic jam continuously.
According to Mrs Gladys Etuk, a medical doctor, “It’s a shame that an important road like the Etta Agbor Road that leads to the biggest Educational and Health facilities in Cross River is in this state.”
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She said both lanes of the road were not wide enough to accommodate the huge number of vehicles that ply the road and to make matters worse, the road was in a bad state.
Etuk noted that residents should pray that there were no emergencies that would require a free flow of traffic to solve, adding that with the state of the road, it would be difficult.
On his part, Mr Adim Collins, a Commercial Transport Operator, said it had gradually become a norm in Calabar for roads, especially the carnival routes, to be rehabilitated at the end of the year.
Collins said, unfortunately, Etta Agbor Road was not on the carnival route, maybe that was why the state government was not paying attention to the road, which, according to him, was very important in Calabar.
He also used the opportunity to appeal to the governor of Cross River to ensure that there was adequate enforcement of quality during the construction and rehabilitation of roads in the state.
“This administration is barely two years old, and we all celebrated when the governor came in and started fixing roads in Calabar, but as we speak, most of those roads are in bad shape again.
“Some of them did not even stay for up to a year, that is not good enough,” he narrated.
