By Dada Ahmed.
The bad portion of the road waiting for rehabilitation.
Residents of Ganaja, a fast-rising suburb of Lokoja, Kogi State, north central Nigeria,have urged the Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to complete the rehabilitation of the seven-kilometre Ganaja road before leaving the office.
The residents, particularly the motorists and motorcycle riders who gave the advice on Sunday in separate interview with the the correspondent of The Reporters at Ganaja, described their experience plying the Ganaja end of the road as “terrible and nothing to write home about.”
Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, a civil servant and a motorist, living at Ganaja village told The Reporters that the consistent wearing and tearing of his vehicle, as he ply the uncompleted portion of the road,coupled with paucity of funds, had forced him to park his car.
“I can no longer cope with the repair of my car as a result of damage caused by plying the bad portion of this road on a daily basis.
“Governor Yahaya Bello should please save us trauma we are passing through plying this road by completing the remaining portion. Such action will serve as a parting gift to residents of Ganaja village by the time he will be leaving office, January 2024.
“If he can do that, we shall continue to remember him for good, even after he must have left the leadership of the state,” he said.
Kekenapep and commercials operators who also commented on the deplorable condition of the portion of the road, in their interview with our correspondent,bemoaned their experience plying the portion.
“I bought my kekenappe machine on a higher purchase of N1.1million and I am expected to pay back with N1. 4 million within one year. I have not paid up to half of the money not to talk of gain, yet the machine has gone back and I have to park it.
“This is because I used to ply the portion of the road with the machine on a daily basis with the attendant damage to it. “This is a serious financial set back and trauma for me, a Kogi state polytechnic graduate turn kekenapep driver, who requested for veiling of identity, told our correspondent.
Some residents of the village noted that the deplorable condition had impacted negatively on their health in many ways, adding that they found it difficult to transport their sick relations to Lokoja, and pregnant wives for delivery and medical attention.
The Reporters recalls that the rehabilitation of the road began in November 2021 with the federal government footing the cost while it shared rehabilitation work to some contractors.
The reason, sources said, was to easy traffic for Nigerians transiting through Lokoja to the eastern part of Nigeria for Christmas and new year among others.
While the contractors that handled the portion from Ganaja bridge to Gadumo completed their work satisfactorily and got paid, their counterparts that handled the Anebo Housing Estate, upto Ganaja village did haphazard job, the worse being the 500 metres to Ganaja village.
The portion is fast becoming almost impassable for human and vehicular movement as at the time of this report on Sunday .
One of the contractors our affected, our correspondent learnt, subcontracted his work to another contractor who failed to deliver the job.
The road is a strategic facility to the social and economic development not only to kogi state but also Nigeria as it serves as the major links between kogi state and the nine local government areas as well with the south south and south eastern part of the country.
The people of the village commended the Bello-led administration for its giant stride in road construction in the three senatorial districts of the state but called for replication of such effort in completing the rehabilitation of Ganaja road.
A member of Traffic Update Family,TUF,an NGO, charged with responsibility of complementing government efforts in road management,also added voice on the issue.
“That road is long over due, road in state capital like Kogi state which is strategically located ought not to be in that condition, the government should as a matter of urgency do the needful,” he urged.
