Kayode ShopekanTHE Senate has tasked the Federal Government to set aside an Emergency Intervention Fund of N300 billion for the reconstruction of deplorable federal roads in Niger State.
The lawmakers encouraged the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the critical roads in Niger State, which according to them links economic corridors in the North and South.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelDeputy Whip of the Senate Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North) made the call during the deliberation on a motion on the deplorable nature of ‘Trunk A’ roads in the state.
The lawmaker decried the terrible state of federal roads in Niger State while he referred to a recent protest by some truck and tanker drivers to that effect.
He said while the state has the longest federal road network of 2,263km out of a total of 32,000km of the federal road network, they have caused untold hardships to the users.
In his words, “The federal roads in Niger State stretched from the Abuja – Kaduna end to the Jebba – Mokwa – Makera – Tegina – Birnin Gwarimpa – Kaduna road to the Mokwa – New Bussa – Agwara – Kigera end which lies to the border with the Republic of Benin. Overall, the following are critical linkage roads within Niger State that provide logistical and vehicular movements between the North and South; especially the South-west and North-west Corridors.”
“Indeed, the massive haulage of heavy industrial goods such as petroleum products, iron rods, cement, finished manufactured goods, machines and equipment, electronic materials and goods, building materials etc, in which trucks and tankers are overloaded pits great pressure on the roads and thus are seriously devastating to the state of the roads,” he added.
Mr Abdullahi also complained that all the major link roads are fraught with fatal accidents occurring on a daily basis resulting in loss of lives, goods and vehicles.
The Senate resolved that a National Legislative Roundtable on the State of Infrastructure for Economic Development be held, to bring all stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions to address the current challenges.
They also urged the Federal Government to direct the Federal Ministry of Works to carry out emergency stabilisation of the failed portions of Bida – Lapai – Lambatta roads, to ease the current suffering, rate of accidents, and loss of goods and investments on the roads.
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