By Kingsley Omonobi

Agenebode, the capital of Etsako East Local Government Area, a town at the bedside of River Niger, reputed for the number of prominent Nigerians it has produced and where the 195 Battalion of the Nigerian Army is located, is about to be cut off from its kilt and kins.

Among the prominent Nigerians the town has produced are a military governor, ambassadors, federal and state permanent secretaries, top class industrialists, military generals, oil moguls, professors and senior advocates of Nigeria. These are people that have given, and are still giving their all for the development of Nigeria and Edo State.

•One of the bad portions of Obe-Agenebode road

Since the administration of Governor Adams Aliu Oshiomole assumed office in Edo state, the people of Agenebode have been unflinching in giving him overwhelming support during elections.

However, the road leading to the River Niger town that also links Idah in Kogi State through the river, is about to be cut off. More than 60 per cent of the road is already gone due to erosion. It is indeed a disaster waiting to happen. Any one seeing it will feel a chill down his or her spine.

Stories abound of how several travelers plying the road, many with families have escaped death or destruction on the road by the whiskers, going to more than two years now and nothing has been done.

Investigation by our correspondent recently, revealed that the administration of the Governor Adams Oshiomole dualized the same stretch of the road from Auchi through Jattu to Ikabigbo but the most dangerous part of the road which is Obe Road connecting Fugar to Agenebode was left unattended to.

Several visitors to Agenebode during the last festival period told Vanguard they were surprised that the town which is one of the most popular areas in Edo north where Oshiomole hails from is having such a death trap on the road and the government is ignoring it.

Contacted on the development, the Edo State government through the Special Adviser, Media, to Governor Oshiomole, Kazeem Afegbua, who incidentally hails from the same local government, acknowledged that the danger exists.

Afegbua however said, “The road is a federal road. Draw the attention of the federal government to it please. States are being impoverished because of decline in revenue”.

Our correspondent is however at a loss, as to why the state government dualized the stretch of the road from Auchi, Jattu to Ikabigbo which are also the same federal roads without excuses but repairing a dangerous gully on Obe road linking Agenebode to Fugar, to avert disaster on the road has become an issue to the state government.