A pressure group, Sunshine Liberation Movement (SLM) has protested what it describes as continuous sidelining of Ondo State in the affairs of things in Nigeria.
The SLM Coordinator, Elder Dipo Ajidahun, in an interview with First News, lamented, among others, that all the federal roads in Ondo State have long been abandoned.
According to him, agitating for the dualisation of federal roads in Ondo State is a luxury, as the single-lane federal roads that course through the state to connect other states are all dilapidated.
“This is very unfair to a state that is strategically located as a potential seaport and that is agrarian enough to become the food basket of the country.
“”The dualisation of Ibadan/Ilesha/Akure Federal Highway terminates at Ijeshaland in Osun State while the Ore/Ondo/Akure Federal Highway has remained a single lane for years and both roads have claimed many precious lives in needless auto crashes.
“While the Owo-Benin road begs for attention, all the federal roads in Akoko area have lost relevance as sheep and other domestic animals now serve their siester on them,” Ajidahun lamented.
The group’s leader particularly urged President Muhammadu Buhari to pay a working visit to Ondo State and traverse all these highlighted roads to see things for himself.
He lamented, saying it would seem that the Federal Ministry of Works under its Minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) is less concerned with Ondo State.
Besides, the activist scoffed at the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), saying, “They are only known with their sign-posts as they have no achievements to point to as far as Ondo State is concerned.”
Besides, Ajidahun said further to the alienation of Ondo State, no serious political appointments have been alloted to the state despite that it belongs to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and that the state gave the APC 80% of its votes to usher in the Buhari administration in its first tenure.
Ajidahun further expressed doubts if the words of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State carry weight at the federal level, noting that “we all know the governor has been agitating for all these things but it seems he is being deliberately ignored.”
“Even, in terms of industrialisation, federal presence is nil in Ondo State, whereas that is not the case in other states,” he further lamented.
Ajidahun thus urged the Buhari administration to have a rethink and give Ondo State all that are due to it.