Daily Champion (Lagos)
31 October 2009
Lagos — Residents of Obele Street in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital now use canoes to cross a portion of an abandoned road project to get to their houses.
When the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) visited the street yesterday, residents, including children, were seen being ferried across the 20-metre stretch of road.
The two operators of the three-seat canoes, who did not want their names in print, said they charged N10 per person.
They said that out of pity, they charged pupils for one trip as they did not pay on their return.
NAN reports that pedestrians who could not afford paying the N10 had to walk through the flooded bush path.
One resident disclosed that there were three private nursery/primary schools on the street.
The resident, who lamented what he called bitter experience on the road, said the contract which was awarded to a party chieftain by ex-Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha's administration, had remained abandoned for many years.
The resident appealed to the state government to prevail on the contractor to complete the project.
Efforts to reach the Bayelsa Commissioner for Works and Transport, Mr. Frank Emmanuel-Opigo, was abortive as one of his aides told NAN that he traveled out of the country.
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