Ado Ekiti, Jan. 23, 2019 (NAN) The Nigerian Government has expressed worry at the indiscriminate erection of speed breakers on federal highways in the country without due authorisation.
The Federal Controller of Works in Ekiti, South West Nigeria, Mr Ishaq Lawal, said this on Wednesday while conducting journalists round some completed roads and those currently undergoing rehabilitation across the state.
He also frowned at the way some articulated vehicles park in the middle of the highway and discharge diesel and motor oil, saying this act had damaged many roads in the past.
This, he added, was contributing to many cases of road crashes in the country.
He said it would amount to economic sabotage for people to allow such roads built with tax payers money to destroy them before their time through reckless handling.
Lawal also warned those in the habit of setting bonfires on the roads in protest to refrain from the act.
He listed wilful dumping of refuse on road drains by traders as one of the factors also contributing to the poor state of Nigerian roads.
« It is illegal for people to mount speed breakers indiscriminately on the highways without first taking permission from the ministry
« If a particular community is having problem in controlling over speeding by reckless drivers, the best bet is to first come to our office where quick intervention and necessary professional assistance will be offered
« A situation where a single community will erect as many as 20 or 15 speed breakers in a distance of less than half a kilometre, all in the name of preventing accidents, does not augur well for unsuspecting road users and it is also damaging to the roads in question, » he said.
Lawal, who expressed satisfaction with the quality of work at the sites, noted that the current administration would not deliver to the people poor quality jobs that were not executed to specification.
NAN reports that among the federal roads inspected by the controller and his team was the 22km Ado Ekiti-Efon Alaaye- Iwaraja Osun boundary highway project awarded at a cost of N3.5billion.
Others are the Ado Ekiti-Ifaki-Otun-Ekiti-Kwara boundary road awarded at a cost of N6.2billion and Ado-Ekiti-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ekiti road rehabilitation project awarded at a cost of N298million.
The Site Manager of Kopek Construction Limited, one of the contractors handling the road projects, Mr Majed Jaoude, promised that the Efon Alaaye-Erinmo-Iwaraja road would be delivered within the next three months.
He, however, pleaded for variation of the original contract sum, saying the construction company was currently battling with high cost of road construction materials such as asphalt and granite.
Two of the road users, Chief Tope Fagun and Mr Adekunle Ogundele, who spoke with NAN, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for living up to his electioneering campaign of addressing the poor state of Nigerian roads.
