BENIN CITY: Edo State Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki has assured the people of the state that the present hardship faced by transporters and passengers in the city center due to the commencement of operation clean up Edo exercise will soon be a thing of the pass as his administration has shown its readiness to recover all government land where a central bus terminal will be built for buses to decongest the city center.
He gave the assurance while speaking to newsmen as he went on an inspection tour of some government properties around the Ring road axis in Benin City the state capital.
Obaseki said in the last four months of his administration, his government took time to study the congression experienced at the city center and found out that the problem and challenges of traffic is that of the absent of a central bus terminal for buses and the indiscriminate picking of passengers by the roadside and also that of street trading.
“We are trying to decongress the Ring road and Oba market and open up the bottle neck because the city center has become choked due to the activities of people selling by the road side and also that of transporters picking passengers by the road side.
“One of the key problem and challenges of traffic is that we do not have a central terminal, we have identified some key properties belonging to government as location where we can build central bus terminal, so we can bring people all across the city here and also dispatches them from this location.
Obaseki said Operation Clean up Edo is not an exercise to punish Edo people but to ensure that the state is clean and if not the cleanness in the country. “There is a bit of hardship due to the exercise but my administration is in a hurry to get a central terminal and a few other parking areas ready quickly so that we can have orderly movement of transportation from this areas that is why I have come to do this inspection” he said.
The governor accompanied by Secretary to Edo State Government Barr. Osarodion Ogie said the present space occupied by Idah primary school, Okai primary school; Ekpenede primary school and government landed property opposite Evbuotubu Motor Park will be used as central bus terminal for buses in the state.
He said at least two of these schools will be relocated to other areas to pave a way for the realization of the central bus terminal. “We are here at St. Paul primary school and Ogbe Junior Secondary School along Airport road to inspect the space here, we have enough space here. We are looking for alternative to relocate those schools to create a way for the central terminal. We found out that we have a lot of land here and our intension is to re-build, improve the infrastructure and increase the classrooms and move some of the pupils from the three schools (Idah, Okai and Ekpenede primary schools) and free up that space and use that land for central terminal.
“We are going to re-build these schools as a proper educational hub, put play ground, mini stadia, so that the children here can feel a sense and create a proper atmosphere for education for them”.
