Rivers, Akwa Ibom communities sue FG over poor state of Eastwest road

Communities in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states have sued the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs over the deplorable state of the East West Road, which claimed a teenage girl recently.

In a motion on notice for an order to enforce their fundamental human rights in Suit No: FHC/PH/FHR/158/2017, the plaintiffs said the long neglect t of the Eleme–Onne section of the East-West in Rivers State was a gross violation of their rights.

The immediate past President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, who represented Eleme, Ogoni, Okrika, Ogo-Bolo, Opobo, Andoni communities and Akwa Ibom State filed the suit at a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.

In the suit, which included commuters of the Port Harcourt–Onne junction section of the East-West Road, Mitee claimed that the neglect of the road has been responsible for the several road mishaps that have claimed several lives.

In a five paragraph affidavit pursuant to order II, rules I and 3 of the fundamental rights (enforcement procedure) rules 2009 and sections 40, 41 (1) and 42 (1) (B) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mitee said Federal Government’s action or inaction in failing to fix the road violated his constitutional rights to freedom of movement and association.

Mitee explained that the death trap to which the Eleme–Onne Junction section of the East/West Road has been turned into was occasioned by government’s failure released funds to complete the road and the imbalance in allocation and disbursement of resources by the relevant government agencies across the country.

He, therefore, demanded that the Federal Government be directed forthwith to fund the completion of the axis of the Eleme Junction on Aba-Port Harcourt expressway by immediately providing funds for the project, which had long been abandoned.