In a letter
dated July 26 addressed to FERMA’s Managing Director and signed by the group’s
National Project Director, Mr. Mohammed Bougei Attah, and copied to the
Minister
of Works, Housing and Power, the Governor of Kogi state as well as the
paramount ruler in the area, the Ohinoyi of Ebira, drew the attention of the
Agency to its advertisement in the Federal Tenders Journal and other national
dailies of June 13 titled ‘General Maintenance and Repairs of Some Federal
Roads Nationwide – Phase 2: The Case of Rehabilitation of Roads in Okene, Kogi
State’
Civil society
organisations working in the areas of procurement and budget monitoring, under
the auspices of Network, has written to the Federal Road Maintenance Agency,
(FERMA), drawing the attention of the Agency to the deplorable state of
Lokoja-Okene road in Kogi state.
The group
while commending the effort of FERMA in fulfilling her statutory
responsibility, noted that “it is however important to state categorically that
the ‘Rehabilitation of Roads in Okene’ and environs are long overdue as it has
suffered total neglect over years” Further, the group admitted that though the
scope of the contract was not made available, the group believe also that the
contract No. GM/16-186 – Lot 69 cover the roads from Zariagi to Okene township
in Kogi state.
Justifying
the pains and sorrows of the people in the area and commuters using the road,
the group posited “For the record, we wish to submit that the Lokoja – Okene
Highway Federal Road, albeit Zariagi-Okene roads have suffered the worst form
of neglect ever in the history of road maintenance and rehabilitation in
Nigeria.
Yet these
roads are the major link connecting the north and the southern, east and
western parts of Nigeria, connecting seven (7) states in the country, and the
gateway to Ajaokuta Steel Company as well as Itakpe Iron Ore Mining Company of
Nigeria. It is also home to the first administrative capital of Nigeria”.
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