Motorists and commuters plying the Lokoja – Ajaokuta – Itobe Road in Kogi State have called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to fix the failed portions of the road to ameliorate the sufferings of users.
Expressing their frustrations on the condition of the road, they noted that the route is the only link between the Federal Capital Territory, other northern states and the Eastern part of the country.
The condition of the road has recently worsened due to the rainy season and this raised concerns of possibility of the road being cut off, further escalating the fears of commuters.
Some of the motorists who spoke with Leadership correspondent who visited the failed portion of the road on Tuesday, all called on the Federal ministry of works to urgently commence repair works on the road.
One of the motorists, Chukudi Felix who was traveling from Enugu, told LEADERSHIP that he sometimes spent between 30 minutes to one hour on that portion of the road, as they are often get stuck while maneuvering their way.
“I’m always plying the road from Enugu to Abuja. At least not less than twice a week. Sometimes I spend more than one hour on this spot, because of the bad nature of the road.
“We want the federal and the state government to come to our aid. We know that this is a federal government road, but the state government can intervene,” Chukudi said.
A commuter in one of the buses heading to Kaduna, Oninye Ike, lamented that their vehicle has been on one spot in the last one and a half hours, calling on the government to urgently intervene to fix the road.
A staff of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), confided in LEADERSHIP that arrangement was under way to fix the failed portion of the road.
He said rehabilitation work was in progress and assured that it will be completed within the shortest possible time.
“As you can observe during your visit to the area, rehabilitation work on the entire stretch is in progress. One lane of the dual carriage of the road from the Ganaja Flyover to Ganaja Roundabout is almost completed. We are also making arrangement to provide palliative measure on that failed portion of the road,” the worker said.
All efforts to speak with officials of the Federal Ministry of Works in the state proved abortive as those in their office in Lokoja declined comment.
However, the Permanent Secretary in the Kogi State Ministry of Works, Mr Sunday Baba, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent, assured that the state has completed arrangement to intervene on the failed portion of the road.
While noting that the road belonged to the federal government, he stressed that it also serves the people of the state, hence the decision of the state government through his ministry to provide palliative measures on the road.
“Yes, the ministry is planning to intervene on the failed section of the road to ameliorate the sufferings of motorists and commuters. We will move to the road within the next few days, I can assure you,” Baba assured.
Recall that the Minister of State for Works who also supervises the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Bello Muhammad Goronyo, had during an inspection tour to assess the conditions of federal roads in Kogi State earlier in the year, stressed the urgent need to intervene on roads that are already in bad shape.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer (FRME) in charge of Kogi State, Muktar Abdulrahim, during the visit, said a recent assessment and inventory of the roads showed that the length of road in very bad state is 348km.
He therefore called for urgent meaures to ensure that the roads were travelable throughout the year.
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