Rabiu Omaku
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule irked by the condition of the Keffi, Nasarawa, and Toto Federal highway has sought the intervention of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency to rehabilitate the Keffi-Nasarawa and Nasarawa-Toto Federal roads.
Governor Sule made a plea for the agency to intervene when he paid a courtesy visit on the Managing Director of FERMA, Engr. Chukwuemeka Agbasi recently.
While congratulating the new management of t FERMA, the Governor said he was at the agency to seek for intervention to rehabilitate the deteriorated stretches of road from Keffi-Nasarawa and Nasarawa-Toto, which he said have become an eyesore.
Governor Sule however said even though the federal Government has awarded contracts for the construction of the road from Keffi-Nasarawa-Toto-Abaji, some challenges require FERMA’s intervention before the contractors are mobilized to the site.
“I already did my research and I realized that the two contracts from Keffi-Nasarawa and Nasarawa-Toto have already been awarded. One of the contractors I was already told, the one handling the Nasarawa-Toto axis, has absconded. He is not on site. The other one is working at a very slow pace. That is why I came to see if I can get some support from FERMA to do some rehabilitation at the moment until things are sorted out,”
In a chat with Journalists shortly after meeting with the FERMA management, Governor Abdullahi Sule lamented that the stretches of road between Keffi-Nasarawa and Nasarawa-Toto is capable of becoming a national embarrassment if nothing is done to rehabilitate it.
He said the road is significant especially that presently, more mining sites are being discovered in Nasarawa Local Government Area, with more visitors going into the area.
“But the biggest challenge is because of the second Niger bridge, the Loko-Oweto bridge that was recently completed. Now everybody coming to Abuja from the Southeast takes that road.
“The road is completely damaged. That is why I came to plead with FERMA to intervene before the road becomes a national embarrassment. Maybe some form of rehabilitation before the contractor is fully funded to come and carry out the work,”.
Governor Sule lamented that as a result of the bad nature of the road, a journey that is supposed to last twenty minutes takes close to one hour and a half.
He pleaded with the FERMA to provide remedial measures even if only on spots that have become real eyesores.
Responding, Engr. Chukwuemeka Agbasi, Managing Director of FERMA, thanked Governor Sule for the visit.
Engr Agbasi disclosed that contracts for the roads between Keffi and Nasarawa, as well as between Nasarawa and Toto, have already been awarded.
“The Nasarawa-Toto was awarded at the cost of N986m but unfortunately the contractor has abandoned the work,” the FERMA boss stated.
He assured the Governor that his agency would undertake rehabilitation work on the roads to ease transportation on the routes.
