The House of Representatives has urged the Ministry of Works and Housing to urgently direct the contractor, Julius Berger Plc. to immediately return to site and complete its reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna road.
The house said that the reconstruction should start with the Jere–Kaduna stretch of the road.
This followed the adoption of an urgent motion of public importance by Rep. Garba Datti (APC-Kaduna) at plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.
The motion was co-sponsored by 38 other lawmakers.
Datti while reading the motion, said that in March 2021, the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN announced that the Federal Executive Council had approved the contract for the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway.
He said the concerning incessant and rampant incidents of banditry along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway, compelled the contractor to withdraw its workers from the road for security reasons
He said that as at the time of the withdrawal by the contractor, at least one half of the stretch of road had been graded and covered only in laterite.
He said that after the intense rainfall of the past few months, it had given way to gorges and potholes that had left the road un-motorable and severely slowed down traffic.
He added that a journey that would ordinarily last one and a half hours now took three hours to complete.
He said because of the current condition of the road, it took for a vehicle or truck to breakdown on it for a few minutes and it would result in a build up of static traffic.
According to him, to worsen matters, the gridlock often left motorists and commuters stranded on the road.
This, he said, could sometimes take between six to nine hours on a journey that should last no more than one and a half hours.
He said there was a high probability that the gridlocks would become recurrent n the immediate
future.
He said that circumstances had made it urgent that the contractor, Julius Berger Plc. be immediately brought back to site to complete the phase of the contract especially, the stretch between Jere and Kaduna.
The house, therefore, urged the Federal Government to deploy the military personnel and material resources as well as intelligence necessary to secure the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway
This, he said, was to enable the contractor resume work without risk to personnel and equipment.
The house also mandated the House Committee on Works to liaise with the minister of works and housing as well as the heads of the relevant security agencies.
This is to ensure implementation of the above resolutions and report to the house within three weeks.(NAN)