Tanker explosion: ‘Govt’ll provide alternative route for heavy duty vehicles’

Worried at the rate at which heavy duty vehicles have accident on the Efon-Erio-Aramoko axis on weekly basis Ekiti state Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has promised to provide alternative route for heavy duty vehicles plying the road.

The governor assured that a by-pass road would soon be constructed behind Erio Ekiti and dedicated to heavy duty vehicles to prevent them from causing unnecessary havoc to innocent citizens.

Fayemi said men of the State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) would be deployed to the route “so as to ensure that vehicles plying the route obey traffic regulations as many of the accidents on the route were traced to overspeeding and brake failure.”

Fayemi who blamed the Federal Government for failing to reimburse the Ekiti state government for the N12 billion it spent to fix federal roads, said the state would have embarked on the construction of Iyin-Itawure road which was awarded during the Shehu Shagari era, but had been abandoned.

Fayemi made the statement while commiserating with families of victims of the fuel tanker fire incident that occurred last Wednesday in Aramoko- Ekiti, where six lives were lost and property worth millions of naira were destroyed.
Condoling with the families during a visit to them yesterday, the governor described the accident as “unfortunate and uncalled for” adding that heavy duty vehicles should be prevented from passing through town centres.

Fayemi said government would consider constructing an alternative route for heavy duty vehicles before they were banned from passing through town centres.