He made the call today, Sunday, September 22, 2019 while
inspecting on-going work on failed portions of Warri-Benin highway being
reconstructed by the state government.
The governor said that many federal roads across the country
were aging, and that the Federal Government should do a total reassessment of
such roads and intervene promptly.
According to him, if the Federal Government fails to act fast, I
am afraid we are going to be overwhelmed one day by the magnitude of failed
roads.
Okowa, who was conducted round the failed areas of the road by
the Commissioner for Works, Mr James Auguye, told newsmen that his
administration was intervening on deplorable federal roads because they were
critical infrastructure for the socio-economic development.
He said, “we are very much aware that this is a federal road. We
complained to the Federal Government but they said it was not in the budget,
and gave us the approval to intervene.
“This road and others are very important, especially to our
people who are road users.
"It was not passable before now, but you can see that
within a period of one week, the contractor handling the project has opened one
side of the road.”
Gov. Okowa explained that he would approach the House of
Assembly for the funds through a supplementary budget as the roads intervention
was an emergency
Aside Benin-Warri highway, the state government is also
rehabilitating failed sections of Benin-Onitsha road, especially at the Asaba
end of River Niger Bridge and Agbor-Abraka-Eku road.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, had told
the media on Tuesday that the intervention on the roads would cost over N1
billion.
Okowa explained that he would approach the House of
Assembly for the funds through a supplementary budget as the roads intervention
was an emergency
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