Journey of 1 hour, now takes 4 hours — Cross River motorists cry over bad roads

The motorists who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), were particularly worried about the state of the Calabar/Itu and Calabar/Ogoja Roads.

They said that the state of the roads had hugely affected business activities and made movement difficult for road users. The motorists urged the Federal Government and other stakeholders to intervene quickly in the interest of the public.

One of them, Adams Anekan, a bus driver, said that the deplorable state of the roads had affected his business because he spent more money to repair his bus.

"The state of the roads makes my bus go bad regularly. I spend more money to repair it, spare parts have become very costly," he said.

Another motorist, Okon Otu, said drivers could no longer break even because they spent more time on the bad spots during their trips

"We spend precious time navigating through the bad spots. A journey of one and a half hours now takes four hours or more. It is not encouraging,” he stated.

He said that construction work on the Calabar/Itu Road project was slow and discouraging.

"The rainy period is coming, the implication is that the end to this suffering is still far,” he stated.

Also speaking, Emen Joseph, a commuter, attributed the high cost of goods, especially foodstuff to the high cost of transportation occasioned by the poor state of the road.

“We spend so much on transportation, this has affected the cost of every product in the market.

"I join the call on the contractor to be more proactive in the implementation of the project. These roads are important to us,” he noted.