By Laleye Dipo
Ahead of this year’s rainy season, the Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has directed that all ongoing works on bridges and culverts, as well as road construction to be completed before the rains set in.
This, the governor argued, is to avoid a situation where communities will be flooded as a result of non-completion of the projects.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has identified some communities in about 16 out of the 25 local governments in the state as areas where there could be serious flood during this year’s rains.
Governor Bello said in Suleja on Tuesday that the state will not allow a repeat of last year’s incidents during which several property and lives were lost as a result of flood and has therefore directed contractors handling critical projects to expedite action and see to their completion immediately.
The governor directed the Commissioner for Finance to release the necessary funds to the contractors that have been performing up to expectation to enable them fund the projects.
At the federal government-owned Kwamba – Suleja road, which was affected by flood last year leading the state to intervene, the governor expressed satisfaction at the level of work done so far on the five-kilometre project.
He said the state decided to fix the road because of its bad shape and because of the difficulties people face while travelling along the road and to ensure free flow of traffic.
Bello however expressed dissatisfaction at the level of work done on the 100-meter bridge linking about 30 communities in Gawu- Babangida Local Government Area four years after the contract was awarded.
He said the N30 million project was being embarked upon by government to save the communities the trauma of flooding annually, adding that its non-completion is a disservice to the ordinary Nigerlite before directing the Ministries of Works and that of Finance to look into the problem being faced by the contractor and solved it immediately.
He told officials of the ministries that: “You can see that the delay due to lack of payments will now cost the government double of the initial contract sum. The river has expanded. If the project is completed on time I don’t think we will spend more than we budgeted for.
“Now it will cost us more than we initially planned, we must complete it this year because it is a priority project. The contactor is on site and has assured me that, with the required funding, within the next two weeks there will be progress here.”
The Magajin Garin Ijah, Alhaji Musa Sulaiman Ijah, whose community has been cut off as a result of the absence of a bridge, told Governor Bello that his subjects have been facing herculean task moving goods and services to markets especially during the rainy season and therefore expressed appreciation to the governor for his intervention.
