FG stopping us from fixing failed roads – Delta govt

From Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Delta State government has lamented the deplorable state of federal roads across the three senatorial districts of the state.

This is as the state government has accused the Federal Government of preventing it from intervening and fixing the failed roads on the grounds that contracts for their rehabilitation had already been awarded.

The most critical are the Agbor-Eku, Warri-Sapele and Ughelli-Asaba roads.

Addressing journalists in Asaba, Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, said the state government had in the past intervened by fixing the deplorable portions of the roads with huge sums of money that were never refunded by the Federal Government.

Aniagwu particularly listed the Agbor-Eku road, saying the state had once intervened on the project, but that due to its present deplorable state, it sought again to intervene to facilitate smooth vehicular and human traffic, but that the Federal Government claimed that contract had been awarded for it’s rehabilitation.

“When we wanted to intervene again on the Agbor-Eku road the Federal Government said it has awarded the contract. Now the road is in a very bad shape. So also is the Warri-Sapele road where commuters were stranded recently. That is a road we intervened in the past and made it motorable, now it is in such deplorable condition.

“At the moment, we are working on the Ughelli-Asaba road. And these interventions run into billions of naira without asking for refunds. We want to appeal to the Federal Government to mobilise the contractors to site because we are pained that the roads are very deplorable condition,” he said.

He said the state government has constructed over 1,700 kilometres of roads, excluding lines and drains, and the storm water projects since 2015.