By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The Kwara State government has in three years rehabilitated 143 bad roads and commenced regular maintanance of another 200 across the state, the Commissioner of Works and Transport, Eng. Rotimi Iliasu, has disclosed.
The commissioner, who featured in ‘Newskeg,’ a programme of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, said that this was the resolve of the state governor, AbduldulRahman AbdulRazaq.
He revealed that bad roads is one of the serious burdens the immediate past government passed on to the incumbent administration, even when such roads were claimed to have been consructed or worked on with billions of naira.
Iliasu said that these roads worked on by present regime included mainly the rural roads, asphaltic and outrightly interlock road construction and reconstructions, as well as those that rehabilitation works were carried out on them.
He also disclosed at the media chat that the state government had intensified monitoring and quality assessment meaures on the roads to avoid the ugly attitudes of the past.
He however pleaded with members of the public to desist from the bad habit of dumping and burning of refuse in drainages, saying that the habit damages roads, which is one of the reasons responsible for early damage to roads in the city.
He also warned that the government, in collaboration with security agencies in the state, would begin to arrest and prosecute people who violate the law against wrong dumping of refuse, especially, shop owners along such roads.
He said, “There’s need for attitudinal change among our people, especially artisans and shopowners, along major roads in the state, particularly in the Ilorin metropolis.
“They gather refuse and burn it inside the drainages, thus damaging the roads. What they don’t know is that government would spend money meant for other people-oriented projects on repair of the damaged roads.
“The state government would soon start prosecuting shop owners along such roads.”
The commissioner also on the programme debunked speculations making the rounds that the ongoing construction of a flyover at Tanke area of the Ilorin metropolis had suddenly stopped.
He also dispelled the rumour that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had taken the Kwara State government to court to stop the government from contructing the bridge accross its pipeline, pointing out that it was even the NNPC as experts, that would handle the construction accross the pipeline.
He said, “The work has not stopped on Tanke flyover project. It is ongoing. It’s just that the contractor is taking professional consideration of the work to ensure quality job.”
He further assured that the project would be completed according to specification and within specified time.
He assrued that the governor, Mallam Abdulrazaq, was committed to make Kwara State a better and conducive place to live, adding that even the government was also embarking on construction of selected federal roads.
Such roads, he said, included Kishi/Kaiama, Ilorin/Kabba, Ilesha Baruba/Yashikra/Chikanda, Share/Patigi roads, among others, which cuts across different parts of the state.
