Minister of Works, David Umahi, has decried the pains faced by commuters and motorists plying the federal road connecting Port Harcourt and Aba.
Umahi who lamented the poor state of the road in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Uchenna Orji, issued a seven-day ultimatum to contractors working on federal roads in the South-East and South-South to accelerate work while ensuring compliance with contract specifications.
He further stated that the Federal Government managed to save more than N300 billion by fixing a problem discovered two weeks ago on the road near the Second Niger Bridge in Onitsha.
His words: “I feel for them very highly. When you go through this road, you now need to take a number of painkillers. It’s not desirable.
“So I’m begging CCECC, the controller and engineers to do everything possible in the next seven days and create a smooth sail on this right hand side.
“And just only two days back, with these leaders, we went to Asaba to look at the design of the bypass of the second Niger bridge, and we went to Onitsha.
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“And by that singular movement, we saw that the design was defective and we agreed on a new kind of design. That was how we saved the country over N300 billion by that singular movement to that location.”
Umahi also disclosed that Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the construction of 28 roads and bridges across the country worth over N1.2 trillion.
Shortly after the FEC meeting held on Monday, he said the projects were approved having gone through the Bureau of Public Procurement and Certificates of No Objection.
Umahi also said FEC approved the construction of Buruku bridge across Katsina Ala River in Benue State worth over N83.7 billion while an approval was given for construction of 91.432km road at Saki in Oyo State worth N144 billion.
However, the FEC approved the stepping down of the road construction from Biu-Kanga-Gaya to the border of Niger Republic costing about 158 billion Naira.
