Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The Kwara State Government, in three years, rehabilitated 143 bad roads and commenced regular maintenance of another 200 across the state, Commissioner of Works and Transport, Eng. Rotimi Iliasu has said.
The Commissioner, who featured in ‘Newskeg’, a programme of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kwara Council, said this was the resolve of Governor AbduldulRahman AbdulRazaq to do.
According to him, bad roads was one of the serious burdens the immediate past government passed on to the incumbent administration even when such roads were claimed to be constructed or worked on with billions of Naira.
Iliasu said these roads worked on by present regime included mainly the rural roads, asphalt and outright interlock road construction and reconstructions, as well as those that rehabilitation works were carried out on them.
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He also disclosed at the media chat that the state government had intensified doing monitoring and quality assessment measures on the roads among the contractors engaged to avoid the ugly attitudes of the past.
He, however, pleaded with members of the public to desist from the bad habit of dumping and burning of refuse in drainage saying, the habit damaged roads which is one of the reasons responsible for early damage to roads in the city.
He warned that the government, in collaboration with security agencies in the state would begin to arrest and prosecute peopke who violate the law against wrong dumping of refuse especially, shop owners along such roads.
“There’s need for attitudinal change among our people, especially artisans and shop owners along major roads in the state, particularly in the Ilorin metropolis.
“They gather refuse and burn it inside the drainages thus damaging the roads. What they don’t know is that government would spend money meant for other people- oriented projects on repair of the damaged roads.
“The state government would soon start prosecuting shop owners along such roads”, he said.
The commissioner also on the programme debunked speculations making rounds that the ongoing construction of a flyover at Tanke area of the Ilorin metropolis had suddenly stopped.
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He also dispelled the rumour that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had taken the Kwara State Government to court over the project against to stop the government from constructing the bridge across its pipeline pointing out that it was even the NNPC as experts, that would handle the construction across the pipeline.
“The work has not stopped on Tanke flyover project. It is ongoing. It’s just that the contractor is taking professional consideration of the work to ensure quality job, assuring that the project would be completed according to specification and within specified time”.
He assured that the governor was committed to make Kwara state a better and conducive place to live adding that even, the government was also embarking on construction of selected Federal roads.
Such roads he said, included Kishi/Kaiama, Ilorin/Kabba, Ilesha Baruba/Yashikra/Chikanda, Share/Patigi roads among others which cuts across different parts of the State.
