We received with joy the soothing news of the recent progress announced in the interview granted by the Honorable Minister of Works, HE. Sen. David Umahi, who announced the concern and decision of the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, on the order to immediately concentrate efforts on the Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin federal road, which is now to be executed in phases.
It is on record that Sen. Sunday Steve Karimi has invested effort into this road both on the floor of the senate and through lobby, which has started yielding results with work recorded on some part of the Mopamuro section. Also, the senator converted the Two Billion Naira (N2,000,000,000) constituency infrastructure fund approved for individual senator by Mr. President into this road rehabilitation as a short-term solution, although that is yet to receive financial approval due to some bureaucracy. The review of this contract for the Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road is being carried out in phases: the Isanlu-Oyi-Ejiba section has been revised and approved by the Federal Executive Council; the Osi-Egbe section review is ongoing; and the Ilorin-Omupo section has been revised and work is almost completed.
Due to Sen. Sunday Karimi’s follow-up and effort invested in realizing the success of this road, the CGC contractor has started negotiating a review of the contract price, emphasizing that the 2014/2016 prices are no longer viable.
The interview granted by the minister assures that the President, after several decades of neglect, is now giving Kogi West considerable attention under the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Funding. As Sen. Sunday Karimi has emphasized, the new funding window will be a big relief because funding has always been the major problem of road construction and rehabilitation nationwide, and there is too much on the table of the Federal Government to handle, with over 195,000KM of road network.
As promised during his campaign, if one thing would be achieved during his tenure as a senator, the Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin federal road would be at the top of the list. This is not an ordinary political statement; the senator has been committed to realizing and correcting this decades-long neglect and abandonment.
“I hereby call on Mangal and Dangote cements to consider carrying out a corporate social responsibility on worse sections of that road”, Karimi added, noting the fact that the haulage of cement on that road has been a major contributing factor to it delapidating state.
– Moses Abu wrote from Lokoja.
