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Odili writes off FERMA
TONY ITA ETIM,
Port Harcourt
GOVERNOR
Peter Odili of Rivers State has lamented that there is little or no presence of
the Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the state.
Governor Odili stated this in Port
Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, when the House of Representatives
sub-committee on FERMA and Federal Highways visited him at Government House.
Odili who expressed dissatisfaction with
the performance of FERMA in the area, said the absence of the agency on federal
roads in the state informed the state government’s intervention in maintaining
some federal highways in the state such as the Port Harcourt - Aba Express Road,
Port harcourt - Owerri Road, the East-West Road, among others.
He regretted that one could not point out
what FERMA has done in the state in the past years since most of the federal
roads that are strategically located in the state had to be maintained by the
state government.
Lamenting the deplorable condition of the
East-West Road, which he described as "one of the most economically important
and viable roads in Nigeria," Odili said the road does not receive the kind of
attention given to other roads which do not carry as much volume of traffic as
the East-West Road.
"If you travel on that road you will be
saddened when you compare it to the dual carriage roads you find elsewhere in
the country that are most of the time not used up to average capacity," Odili
stated.
Odili who noted that natural law and
justice demand that rewards should be commensurate with the amount of work done
and the level of sacrifice made, told the committee that the Airport Road under
construction and the federal roads that cut through the city were being
maintained by the state government since 1999.
He added that currently, the state
Ministry of Works is negotiating with Julius Berger for complete resurfacing of
the entire stretch of Aba and Ikwerre roads, which are federal roads.
The governor appealed to the national
assembly to ensure that sufficient appropriation input is made to enable the
presidency make appropriate refunds for the reconstruction of the Airport Road,
which was promised during an official visit to the state.
Commending the committee for the visit,
Odili said it is proper that after appropriation of funds, there should be a
monitoring of how these funds are deployed in order not to be foundation for
misappropriated.
According to Odili, the visit would compel
agencies of government in the state to sit up and break away from the ineptitude
of the past, and expressed hope that the visit would also afford the committee
the opportunity to verify FERMA’s activities in the state.
Earlier, Chairman of the committee, Hon
Christopher Enai, told the governor that they were in the state to assess the
performance of FERMA in respect of its budgetary provisions for 2004.
Enai said the members had visited some
federal roads being undertaken by the Rivers State Governor and commended the
quality of work done on the Airport Road.
He said the committee has recommended a
refund of fund spent on the federal roads by the state government to the federal
authorities.
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