Several persons are feared dead as a truck trying to escape from members of the Rivers State Taskforce hit a tricycle pushing it with its passengers into the Aleto River along the East/West Road in Rivers State.

Eyewitnesses say this incident, which occurred during the mid-hours of Tuesday, June 27, 2023 was worsened by the deplorable state of the Eleme axis of the East/West Road in Rivers State.

They said the truck was making frantic attempts at manoeuvring the potholes on the road while being pursued by the taskforce members when the accident happened, plunging the passengers and the tricycle driver into the river which was contaminated with spilled crude oil.

For years, the appalling state of the road has left road users in fear while commuting through the road to their various destinations.

An eyewitness, who was present at the scene, narrated that the tricycle was on its own when the truck driver while trying to escape from taskforce which was chasing him pushed the tricycle conveying passengers into the Aleto River.

Passers-by, who witnessed the incident, quickly embarked on an immediate search and rescue bid to save the beleaguered passengers.

A yet-to-be-ascertained number of passengers were rescued while some were still unaccounted for as the current in the river underneath the bridge was fast and strong making it difficult for the rescuers to go further.

Some commuters, who spoke to Kristina Reports, lamented that their lives are at risk each time they approach that axis of the road, regretting that the Federal Government has refused to do anything about the state of the road.

A transporter, who only identified as Frank, asserted that “every year, federal government uses this road to make money, every year they budget huge amounts of money for this road and yet nothing is been done”.

Another, a lady who sells food items to nearby business places but preferred not to be named, said “every time that is how different cars and lorries will fall here. This one now is taskforce chasing the truck man and see what has happened”.

The East/West Road is actively used by heavy duty trucks belonging to multinational companies which are contributing heavily to the nation’s economy such as Indorama Petrochemicals, Indorama Fertilizer Complex, Port Harcourt Refinery, Federal Ocean Terminal, Oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne, among others.

Beside these major firms, the area from Elelenwo to Eleme houses over 200 oil and gas companies operating within the axis, it also houses the two sea ports and a naval facility.

In June, 2021, youths from the four local government areas in Ogoni (Eleme, Gokana, Khana and Tai) staged a seven days’ protest to draw the federal government’s attention to the state of the road.

The protesters occupied the road with blockades which kept the road unused, an action that crippled the nation’s oil and gas activities for seven days but was later called off after much deliberations.

This forced the then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, to call and promise the affected communities that he would come personally to have a roundtable discussion with them but with a caveat that if he was going to come, there should be no protest.

Riled by the request which they deemed unreasonable, the people declined, thus giving him an excuse not to come and instead sent the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Babayo Ardo, who read his address to community leaders during the visit.

Since then the road has been neglected and remained in that state till this moment causing numerous avoidable deaths through accidents with destruction of lives and properties being recorded on a weekly basis.