The Anambra State Chapter of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers unit of the National Union of Petroleum Workers (NUPENG) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their aid by fixing up the Enugu - Onitsha Express Road.

The drivers took to the road on Wednesday to protest its deplorable state and government’s failure to do anything about it even after a disaster that left 72 people dead when a tanker carrying fuel fell and exploded few years back.

Addressing journalists in Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of Anambra State, the Chairman, Mr. Godwin Anyim, said that between the months of June and September, the union had lost over N200 million as a result of truck falls and related road crashes due to the bad road, especially the Umunya axis.

His words: “Each time our truck gets involved in an accident, the truck will burn to ashes, the driver and conductor will die and the product will be lost, because it is highly inflammable.

“It is sad news for NUPENG that we cannot go freely to Enugu from Onitsha. Umunya to Awka is a death trap. We suffer it most because the products we carry are highly inflammable.

“We have made our case everywhere; we have asked our State Governor to convey this message to the President but whether the message had been transmitted or not, we do not know.

“Right now, going from Nnewi to Arondizuogu - Okigwe axis is impassable. Enugu - Port Harcourt - Onitsha roads, which are the major routes most trucks from the South East use to go to depots in South South, are in terrible conditions and all of them are federal roads.”

The union further noted that a journey of about 100 kilometres from Onitsha to Enugu would take them more than four hours instead of the usual one and half hours adding that the loss in man, material and time will do no good to the economy of a developing country like Nigeria.

•Photo shows Enugu - Onitsha Express Road.

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