By Segun Awofadeji in Gombe
The Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has commenced the construction of 12 township roads in Gombe metropolis with a promise to do more before he leaves office in May 2019.
The governor had during a rally organised for him and his party’s governorship candidate Bayero Nafada last Thursday promised to execute not less than 50 roads in different parts of the state before the expiration of his tenure.
He said the road projects are to further assure the people of the state that with the PDP government after next year’s general election, it will be more and more of people-oriented projects.
However, giving a breakdown of the road construction, the state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Alhaji Hassan Mohammed Santana, explained that the 12 roads has a total span of seven kilometres with a completion period of six months.
He explained further that the width of each road is about eight metres with drains of 0.8 by 0.8 metres, adding that the current road projects are for Gombe North State constituency.
According to him, “As you can remember, we were at Jekadafari today to flag off the road construction for Gombe North. If you can remember earlier, the road construction for Gombe South was done and completed and His Excellency felt it necessary to come to the Gombe North Area and Gombe North constitutes about 12 roads.
“As you can see, Jekadafari North is a densely populated area. It’s a densely populated area where you have so many mishaps along that area. That’s in case of crime, in case of disease or epidemic and what have you. So, by opening the road, people will at least be exposed to good accessibility of roads and a healthier environment.
“The phase six of the road construction comprises about 23 kilometres that we are going to start as soon as possible. Aside that, we are going to enter Malam Inna, Kagarawal, which is going to be an entirely different project itself. But very soon the contractor will commence work. Likewise in Nassarawo area, where we have the groundnut clusters, and the project would be awarded and it would start as soon as possible.”
Speaking about paying compensation to those whose property/land would be affected, the commissioner said: “We have already done the compensation. If you can remember Jekadafari North, people have been compensated; some have even left the area. We compensated people within Jekadafari North to the tune of about N700 million. Most of them have relocated, but there are some who are a little bit recalcitrant, you know, they never want to move until they see work commences. And I feel in the next one week or so, everywhere would have been cleared, because we are going to start demolition, as soon as possible.”
