Sometimes the government can amaze you by carrying out some wonderful projects and you would just wonder if they were touched by God. But other times they will just act in their normal manner of being nonchalant, said Mr Obidah John, a resident of Ekosodin in Edo state. This was his conclusion after joining the Dataphyte team to track contracts awarded by the Edo state government.
One of such projects is the 4.86 kilometre Ekosodin Road commissioned by the state government.
Other residents of Edo State who have benefited from the Ekosodin road construction, like Mr Obidah, have expressed amazement at the project’s completion and the resulting economic benefit.
According to the World Bank, roads are critical to any development agenda because they connect producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to school, and the sick to hospitals. This is very true for residents of Ekosodin and environs who had been cut off from important facilities and disconnected from other markets.
For instance, due to inadequate accommodation in the University of Benin, some of the students reside in Ekosodin village. Since 2011 when the Ekosodin Road fell into disrepair, the students residing in the community and the residents of the community have faced problems of flooding and poor roads. Lack of drainage facilities subjected the village to heavy flooding during the rainy season and most of the roads suffered serious erosion so that it became herculean for residents to move about during the rains.
Before the construction of the road, a Facebook post by Independent Television and Radio highlighted the poor state of the road. In one of the comments on the post, a facebook user Ehis Gatiano noted that the Ekosodin road has been in such a state for many years.
Another user Igbinosun Prince Osazee even went on to predict that it will take the next four years to reconstruct the road.
Construction of the Ekosodin Road
Contrary to Igbinosun Prince Osazee’s prediction of the project taking four years to complete, Dataphyte confirmed that the 4.86 kilometre road connecting Ekosodin and adjoining communities in the University of Benin (UNIBEN) area of the state’s Ovia North East Local Government Area has been completed
The road matrices, which are powered by the state’s Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC), include Ehigeagba, Osanidowonyi, Boundary, and Edo Streets, as well as Main Ekosodin Road and Newton Road.
However, as revealed to the tracking team, the completion of the road has aided economic activities in the area with more people able to conduct business in the area. The road has also provided students living in the area with easy access to the University of Benin.
Similarly, it has also provided security operatives with easy access to the area to contain the occurrence of crime that the Ekosodin area was previously known for.
Respondents told the tracking team that their businesses has improved and they are now making more money since the completion of the Ekosodin road in Ovia North-East local government area.
According to data mined from the Edo State Open Contracting Portal, the research team discovered that the construction of the Ekosodin road in the Ovia North East local government area of Edo state, was worth a total of 1.1 billion naira.
Contracted out in three lots, the sum of the contract for the first Lot is N236.851 million and the handler is Erylaston International Limited. There were two other tenders for the contract but Erylaston International Limited won.
N357.290 million was the contract amount for the second lot of the Ekosodin road and adjoining street, a contract handled by NAFRO Nigeria limited and the third lot contracted at N511 million.