Succour as businessman constructs road in Katampe

It was a prayer answered for residents of Katampe community, an Abuja suburb, as a philanthropist and businessman, Mr Abdulhamid Mahmud constructed a three-kilometre road in the area, thus ending their years of hellish movement.

The access road, which has been abandoned for several years, is now undergoing construction by G-COPLEX Nigeria Limited, the project handler.

Mahmud said the gesture was part of his Corporate Social Responsibility and a way of complementing government’s infrastructure development blueprint.

He added that the initial estimated amount for the project was N400 million, but due to the bad nature of the soil, he incurred extra expenses.

He however assured that everything will be concluded in the coming days.

He said: “Being a businessman particularly with focus on developing properties, it became necessary for me to construct the access road as I have purchased property in the community and there is no access road. As such, you can’t invest your property when there is no access road.

“The road is a three kilometre road located in Katampe village and has not been accessed by vehicles in years as the residents suffer greatly before they reach their homes especially in the rainy season. In fact, many call it a death trap.

“Initially, N400 million was estimated for the primary infrastructure, meaning bringing refuse out the roads, compacting the roads, putting gravels and doing the drainages which is the primary infrastructure. Later, we discovered that the soil is bad, so we are cutting the soil. At most, we will round up the work in one week because we have been here for the past 22 days,” he added.

“In addition to lack of access road, they lack good water and electricity. As such, we provided a borehole for them because we know the government cannot do it alone. So, I decided to put my effort in ensuring something is done”.

Mahmud added that while the Federal Capital Territory Administration may have good intentions, it seems not to have accurate information, especially as regards the state of public infrastructure in the suburbs.

He urged the environmental department and development control officials of the Federal Capital Territory to visit the site after the project is completed and put necessary regulations to ensure that refuse does not overtake the road again.