By Charles Ayodele
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, in Ekiti State, has begun what it calls vegetation control and desilting of drainage across the state aimed at ensuring safety of the road users.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer, FRME, in the state, Engr. Simon Adeniran Adeniyi, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, urged members of the public to be patient as the Federal Government has a lot of programmes in place for their wellbeing.
The Agency explained that particularly in this rainy season, the bushes will overgrow and encroach on the roads to the detriment of every class of road user.” And vegetation control means full control of the bushes that are encroaching on the roads’.
“We are currently having a programme across the South-West and South-South Nigeria where there are forests. The programme tagged “Operation Safeguard the Roads”, has the objective of clearing the bushes along the road sides for the road users to have a clear vision of where they are going for safety reasons which according to him is happening for the first time, and that he believes it would be sustained”.
It is a project that focuses only on the maintenance of federal roads in the state, where unemployed youths from the communities are engaged and paid by FERMA for the clearing of the bushes.
A Project Officer who was on inspection, Engr. Adeleke Olaolu Adewale, said in this era of unemployment, FERMA has through this project reduced crimes because a good number of the youths in communities have been engaged in this project that will last for appreciable time.
According to him”, at one of the project inspection sites at Iyin-Ado road, he said the trees and vegetation that are encroaching on the roads will be cut because they affect visibility”.
