The Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has issued an urgent call to action to Minister of Works David Umahi and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, demanding immediate intervention to repair the dilapidated Naze-Nekede-Ihiagwa-Obinze road corridor. In a public statement issued on Monday, August 31, 2026, by OYC National President Comrade Igboayaka O. Igboayaka, the apex Igbo youth body warned that the severe degradation of the vital arterial road has crippled academic activities, inflated transportation costs, and exposed students of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) and the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, to violent criminal attacks.
How are bad roads escalating insecurity and economic hardship for students in Owerri?
The Naze-Nekede-Ihiagwa-Obinze road serves as the primary transit corridor connecting thousands of students, lecturers, and local business operators to both higher institutions.However, years of neglect and abandoned construction have turned major stretches into impassable gullies.Youth leaders and student representatives noted that slow-moving traffic and stranded vehicles create easy targets for criminals operating along the unlit off-campus corridors, resulting in a sharp spike in car snatchings, phone snatchings, and armed robberies targeting student residential lodges.
“Although it is a state road, it connects two major federal institutions, Federal University of Technology (FUTO) and Federal Polytechnic Nekede. The Federal Ministry of Works under David Nweze Umahi should intervene and prove capacity to end the suffering of students.”
Addressing the security threats confronting off-campus residents, the Ohanaeze Youth Council emphasized that bad road infrastructure severely impairs security agency response times during emergency distress calls.
“The bad road has become a den for kidnapping, car snatching, and motorcycle theft. The darkness and isolation created by these impassable routes have turned student lodges in neighbouring communities into easy targets for armed robbers.”
Adding to the outcry, the Students’ Union Government (SUG) of FUTO detailed the severe economic strain inflicted on students by soaring transport fares and commercial transport breakdowns.
“Our university community is trapped in a harrowing reality where the very roads meant to connect us to education have become a perilous nightmare, endangering academic pursuits, crippling our finances, and escalating the threat of insecurity.”
The youth council and student bodies appealed for immediate palliative grading, drainage restoration, and joint security patrols while permanent reconstruction works are scheduled. Will the federal and state governments coordinate joint intervention funds to restore the critical education corridor?
