Lawmakers in the Kogi State State House of Assembly has appealed to the State Government to urgently complete the delayed construction and rehabilitation of Ankpa-Abejukolo road in Ankpa and Omala Local Government respectively.
The lawmaker representing Ankpa I State Constituency Hon. Lawal Akus represented a motion before the hallow chamber on Wednesday.
Hon. Akus recalled that, the Kogi State Government in October, 2016 awarded the rehabilitation and construction of Ankpa Abejukolo to Messers Mo-Tex Engineering covering a total of 75.9Km.
Unfortunately, the first time lawmaker expressed dismay that,
only 3.3KM has been done so far by the contractor with 72.6KM yet to be constructed/rehabilitated.
Explaining further on the present State of the bad road, Hon. Akus said ” the road is a strategic infrastructure linking Ankpa Local Government (various communities in Ankpa from Ejegbo, Emere, Odagba, Enabo, Ofugo, Inye, Ikka etc) to numerous communities in Omala Local Government.
“The road is very significant to farmers and traders as an outlet for transportation of numerous communities in both Ankpa and Omala Local Governments.
“The delay in the construction/rehabilitation of the road, numerous lives have been lost to banditry and kidnappings, as criminals find it easy to operate and commuters are left at the mercy of murderous elements as well as farm produce and goods and services”.
He prayed that the Assembly writes to the Kogi State Ministry of Works and Housing to take necessary steps to complete the Ankpa-Abejukolo road, adding that, the Ministry further takes urgent inspection of the road and recommend to the State Government the current valuation of what needs to be done in view of the market reality (inflation and foreign exchange value to Naira) on construction.
” The House should writes to the Kogi State Ministry of Works and Housing to include the construction/rehabilitation of Ankpa- Abejukolo road in the year 2024 fiscal budget that shall be forwarded to the house for passage into law later this year” he added.
Responding, lawmakers in their numbers including Hon. Ibrahim Abba, Ankpa II State Constituency described the present situation as very worrisome, stressing that, the Government should urgently look at the plight of the people to cushion the economic hardship due to the present bad state of the roads in Ankpa and Omala Local Government Area of Kogi State.