Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The federal government has given the assurance that section 2 and 3 of the Abuja-Kano expressway will be completed and inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari before the end of his tenure on May 29.
A statement from the Director, Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Works and Housing, Blessing Lere-Adams, said the assurance was given by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, who was taken on a tour of the road by the minister in charge of the ministry, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN).
“Both section 2 and 3 will be completed and ready for commissioning by President Muhammad Buhari before the end of the tenure of his administration,”Gambari was quoted as saying.
He disclosed that another legacy project of the resident, the 2nd Niger bridge will also be inaugurated before he leaves office.
Gambari recalled that the bridge had been opened for road users during the last Christmas season to ease the hardship that people had suffered for years now
The CoS lauded the president for what he described as his ‘outstanding and commendable commitment to infrastructural development’ across the country.
“We want to commend Mr President for making the resources available so that this kind of progress can be made”, he stressed.
In his remarks, Fashola explained that section 3 of the road, which is from Kaduna to Kano is 137 kilometres, which is longer than the Lagos – Ibadan expressway, a 127 kilometre road, while section 2 of the road which stretches from Zaria to Kaduna is 73 kilometres.
He added that though the Lagos- Ibadan expressway started earlier, both projects are being completed around the same time.
On why work on the section 1 of the road, which is from Abuja to Zaria was not progressing like the other two, the minister attributed the reasons to criminal activities which stalled the work for about a year in 2022.
He listed other issues which delayed the project as right of way which required relocation of buildings, markets, electricity installations and utilities which he noted must be addressed before the contractor could do his job.
He said that work on that section of the road was ongoing just as the required collaboration between the ministry and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister and the governors of Niger and Kaduna states whose territories are connected to the 265-kilometre road was going on.
Fashola gave the assurance that the section will be completed by the next administration as soon as possible since funding being provided by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) is now readily available.
The Managing Director of the NSIA, Mr Aminu Sadiq, who also spoke at the event, affirmed his organisation’s commitment and readiness to provide the funding for the project.
