FG spends N120bn on 32 roads in 2 years

The Federal Government said on Monday that it expended about N120 billion in the completion of 32 federal roads across the country between May 2011 and May 2013.

Minister of works, Mike Onolememen, said this in Abuja at the 2013 Ministerial Platform organised as part of activities to mark President Goodluck Jonathan’s mid-term in office.

Onolememen said the roads were spread across the six geo-political zones of the country.

“The Federal Ministry of Works, indeed, has a plan for road development in Nigeria for the Northern part of the country and indeed all the six geo-political zones of the country.

“The total cost of delivering those 32 roads cumulatively is put at about N126 billion out of which the Federal Ministry of Works has paid about N120 billion”.

Onolememen said that the completed roads were provided with the relevant road infrastructure, adding that the condition of the roads had reduced the rate of accidents in the areas significantly.

He said that most of the roads were inherited from previous administrations, noting that apart from the 32 completed ones, others were near completion.

According to him, more than 116 roads projects were inherited and many more projects are nearing completion.

He said the ministry was collaborating with multi-lateral agencies such as the World Bank, and the Africa Development Bank to ensure the completion of the road projects.

He listed the reconstruction and pavement strengthening of Ikom-Mfum road in Cross Rivers and the periodic maintenance of Jebba-Lafiaji Road in Niger State as some of the completed projects.

Others, according to the minister, are the reconstruction of the Abakaliki-Mbok-Ogoja Junction in Ebonyi and Cross River states and periodic maintenance of the Takai-Albasu-Gaya Road in Kano State.

He said that the Nafada-Gombe Abba Road in Gombe; Hong-Mubi Road in Adamawa; and the Okpala-Igwurita Road had also been maintained.

Onolememen said the second Niger Bridge in Anambra and Delta states, Apakun/Oshodi-Murtala Muhammed International Airport road in Lagos and the Nupeko bridges in Niger, were some of the private partnership projects embarked upon by the ministry.

The minister said that the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the last two years had been repositioned and equipped with state-of-the-art mobile pothole patching.

He said FERMA had been involved in the recovering of road washout, general maintenance and vegetation control in some federal highways in the country.

He said the ministry had implemented new policy initiatives, including the abolition of the use of cut-back bitumen and its replacement with bitumen emulsion.

He said that the move had freed kerosene for domestic use and was promoting environment-friendly construction methodologies in road projects.

Onolememen said the introduction of the ‘operation safe passage’ policy was aimed at providing motorable roads and reducing road fatalities.

The minister was supported at the event by the minister of state for works, Bashir Yuguda, and other top officials of the ministry.