The chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Kogi state, Ibrahim Itodo, on Wednesday faulted the demolition of roundabouts in Lokoja, the state capital by the state government, describing it as a misplaced priority.
He said the action was against the focus of the council, which was presented to the administration and has to do with the rehabilitation and construction of rural roads to ensure the economic development of the state.
According to him, rather than starting with demolition and construction of roundabouts, the state government should have embarked on ventures that would make rural roads motorable and aid agricultural activities in such areas.
He argued that it had been established that greater percentage of the people reside in the rural area such that they contribute the largest volume of votes through which politicians are declared victorious after elections.
Itodo noted that since the people in the rural areas could not struggle for contracts and appointments from the state government, it is pertinent for government to implement programmes and projects that would be beneficial to them.
He added that the present administration should take advantage of the earth moving equipment that were procured by the immediate past regime in the state to rehabilitate such rural roads.
The IPAC chairman said, “With a motorable rural roads the people can also have access to basic healthcare delivery and agricultural products can be transported, this should be issues that government should focus on, for it to dissipate energy on removal of old aesthetic designs is a waste of resources.
“We shall also be pleased if the government can tell us why they demolished those structures, government should be bottom-top approach, and it should ask the public what they want essentially not that government will be dumping projects on them.
“We should be informed before government embark on the destruction of those public properties, this will enable the people have an idea of their developmental project, so for in IPAC, government should tell the public the advantages and disadvantages of what it is doing.”
It would be recalled that the state government had last week demolished six of the seven roundabouts in Lokoja with the move resulting to various insinuations from the public.
The development made the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to openly say the demolition did not have any spiritual attachment.
Credit: Tribune
