The people of Ningi Emirate in Bauchi State have faulted, a former senator and former member of House of Representatives’ criticism of an 11km road dualisation project in Ningi township which construction work was recently flagged off by Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed.
The two former lawmakers, one of them once represented Ningi federal constituency in the House, while the other also once represented Kaduna central senatorial district in the Senate, Shehu Sani, both criticised the contract sum of N10.3 billion.
But in a reaction to the criticism by the former lawmakers, the Ningi Grassroots Development Association (NGDA) described the critics as ignorance of the enormity of work and compensation payment involved in the project execution, saying the critics should have first and foremost gotten the necessary information pertaining the project before they utter a word on it.
The chairman of the association, Alhaji Yusuf Yunusa Ningi, while speaking with journalists yesterday, explained that the execution of the project will affect residential buildings, commercial shops, a filling station, as it also entails the construction of six bridges, culverts and affect farmlands, among others.
These, the association chairman further enumerated, were in addition to the provisions of road shoulders, people’s double walkways, pedestrians crossing, and street light to boost security of the area, forestalling auto-crashes that have been the phenomenon of the road for decades.
Yusuf recalled that the Ningi emirate and local government councils have for decades been appealing to successive administrations in the state for the dualization of the road to curb accidents, but the plea fell on deep ears, until the present administration of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed heeded to their yearnings and intervened.
He said it was a habit for such critics in the likes of Senator Shehu Sani, and the once Ningi federal constituency representative, who feel they can criticize every human endeavour or infrastructural development to simply regain relevance from the electorate or people generally.
revealed that it was as a result of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed’s intervention in awarding the contract for the dualisation of the 11-km road project that the emir of Ningi, Alhaji Yunusa Mohammed Danyaya graciously and delightfully bestowed the traditional title of ‘Turakin Ningi’ on Governor Mohammed whose colourful coronation would soon be held.
Also, Adamu Idris, a member of NGDA, said, “This project is a dual carriageway of 11 kilometres each lane. The contract sum is not only for the execution of the project, there are compensation which include filling stations, shopping malls, houses as well as streetlight, drainage and other watercourse throughout the length of the road, among others,”
The 11-km road dualisation from GSS Ningi to Dudduba project was awarded to MotherCart Nig. Ltd at the sum of N10.3bn and execution will be completed in 18 months.
