Al-Makura urges FG to gazette Kwandere-Keffi road

Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has appealed to the Federal government to gazette the state-owned Lafia-Kwandere-Keffi road as a federal road.

He made the appeal in Lafia on Saturday when members of the Senate Committee on Works, led by its chairman, Sen.Kabiru Gaya paid him a courtesy visit.

The governor said the call became necessary to speed up the completion of the road for the benefit of travelers.

“Basic infrastructure starts and ends with roads, road being the most flexible infrastructure gives every citizen the opportunity to link up from one place to another.

“One is the Lafia-Kwandere-Keffi road. Even though the Lafia-Keffi road is not a federal road, I will crave your indulgence to see what you can do to gazette that road,“ he said.

The committee was on inspection tour of road projects in Nasarawa and Benue.

Al-Makura described road construction as critical to the development of any society.

He said this conviction made his administration to give priority to road construction since 2011, to link all the 13 local government areas of the state.

The governor also said that the ongoing construction of 65-kilometre Lafia-Kwandere-Keffi road, if completed, would shorten the distance between Lafia and Keffi by over an hour.

According to the governor, the completion of the road will also provide a viable alternative route for travelers coming from the South-East and Benue to Nasarawa state.

The governor explained further that once the road is gazetted, the federal government takes full responsibility of the road and maintain it better for the benefit of travelers.

Al-Makura said that the state government had embarked on repair work on a portion of the Awe-Tunga road to ease transportation for people of the communities and those of other states like Taraba.

“The contract for Lafia-Obi-Awe was completed about two years ago but we realise that a certain portion of that road needed to be extended.It is about 33 kilometres from Awe to Tunga.

‘’Irrespective of the fact that it is a federal government road, we felt a sense of commitment to embark on the construction of the road.

‘’The road is more than 50 per cent completed.

Al-Makura expressed optimism that when completed, the road would enhance transportation between the people f the state, Taraba and beyond.

Earlier, Gaya, expressed disappointment over the slow pace of work on the road project that linked the ongoing Federal government initiated Loko bridges in Toto Local Government Area of the state.

Gaya appealed to Al-Makura to intervene through various channels to ensure that the road project was completed and to complement the completion of the four bridges.

He also urged the governor to put in extra effort to ensure that the road was fully funded, adding that there was no point completing the bridges without the road.

Gaya disclosed that the Federal Government allocated almost N50 billion to the four bridges.

The chairman urged the governor to ask for a refund for money spent by the state government on federal roads across the state so as to be encouraged to do more, ‘’when the need arises.’’