WorldStage Newsonline– The Senator representing Kaduna South, Sunday Marshall Katung on Thursday moved a motion to address the delayed completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway.
The motion, which is solely sponsored by Katung and titled “Urgent Need to address the delayed completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway was directed to the Senate Committee on Works to interface with the Federal Ministry of Works and the hierarchy of Julius Berger Nigeria to find out why the project has not been completed and report back to the Senate within two weeks.
Debating the motion, the Senate noted that the highway formed a critical part of the highway system that ran from the North to the South of Nigeria.
It further noted the highway was a strategic national infrastructure that enabled movement of people and products from north to south and vice-versa.
It also expressed awareness that, in response to its poor and deteriorating conditions, the Federal Executive Council had in December 2017 approved the rehabilitation of the highway and awarded the contract for it to Julius Berger Nigeria.
The Senate expressed worries that in spite of the three years completion period for the rehabilitation contract award of the highway to Julius Berger which stretched to six years and for which huge sums of money had been expended, many stretches of the road were still in deplorable conditions that are currently causing hampered free flow of traffic, accidents, loss of lives and consequently impacting negatively on socio-economic activities.
It also expressed concern that the deplorable state of the road was aiding criminal activities in various parts because, according to it, bandits carry out kidnapping and robbery at will due to the degraded sections of the highway serving as traps.
It therefore urged the Federal Ministry of Works to mandate the contractor – Julius Berger – to expedite action on the construction of the road and achieve completion by December 2024 as well.
While mandating the Committee on Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance, the Senate also resolved to issue any further directive or direct as might be deemed necessary in the circumstances.
