Afe Babalola seeks FG intervention on Ekiti federal roads, commends Ojudu’s advocacy

Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to personally inspect the deplorable Ado-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ikole federal road in Ekiti State.

Babalola said the president’s personal assessment would enable him to appreciate the condition of the road, which he described as largely impassable. He made the appeal in an open letter titled, “An Appeal to the Federal Government to Revisit the Road Leading to Afe Babalola University and an Open Letter of Appreciation to Senator Babafemi Ojudu”.

The elder statesman said the appeal became necessary after years of neglect of the road, which serves several major institutions and facilities. He disclosed that ABUAD had, as part of its corporate social responsibility, spent billions of naira between 2010 and 2019 on the repair and maintenance of portions of the road and the old Ureje Bridge.

According to him, the road serves ABUAD, the ABUAD Multi-System Hospital, the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, the Ado-Ekiti campus of the National Open University of Nigeria, a Federal Government-owned silo and the Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport.

Babalola expressed concern over previous attempts to rehabilitate the road, recalling that residents welcomed the award of a rehabilitation contract to a local contractor in 2019. He, however, said the project was later abandoned after the contractor allegedly left the road in a worse condition.

The legal luminary commended Senator Babafemi Ojudu for consistently drawing attention to the condition of federal roads in Ekiti, particularly the road leading to ABUAD. He said Ojudu’s advocacy had provided an additional voice to the longstanding campaign for the rehabilitation of the road despite repeated representations to successive administrations.

“In support of Senator Ojudu’s well-appreciated position, may I humbly appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to personally visit the road because it would appear that he has not been given the true picture of the deplorable and impassable nature of the road,” he said.

Babalola also urged Ekiti indigenes, particularly professors, opinion leaders and other influential stakeholders, to join the campaign for improved road infrastructure across the state.