DELTA Governor, Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, has called on the Federal Government to re-assess all roads constructed over 20 years ago with a view to reconstructing failed ones.
He made the
call on Sunday while inspecting ongoing work on failed portions of Warri-Benin
highway being reconstructed by the state government.
The governor
said that many federal roads across the country were aging and that the Federal
Government should do a total reassessment of such roads and intervene promptly.
According to
him, if the Federal Government fails to act fast, I am afraid we are going to
be overwhelmed one day by the magnitude of failed roads.
Okowa, who was conducted round the failed
areas of the road by the Commissioner for Works, Mr. James Auguye, told newsmen
that his administration was intervening on deplorable federal roads because
they were critical infrastructure for the socio-economic development.
He said, “We
are very much aware that this is a federal road. We complained to the Federal
Government but they said it was not in the budget, and gave us the approval to
intervene.
“This road
and others are very important, especially to our people who are road users.
“It was
not passable before now, but you can see that within a period of one week, the
contractor handling the project has opened one side of the road.”
Gov. Okowa explained that he would approach the House of Assembly for the funds through a supplementary budget as the roads intervention was an emergency.
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Aside
Benin-Warri highway, the state government is also rehabilitating failed
sections of Benin-Onitsha road, especially at the Asaba end of River Niger
Bridge and Agbor-Abraka-Eku road.
The
Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, had told the media on
Tuesday that the intervention on the roads would cost over N1 billion.
Okowa explained that he would approach the
House of Assembly for the funds through a supplementary budget as the roads
intervention was an emergency.