Road construction: Edo government owes contractors N28 billion debt- Commissioner confirms

The State Commissioner for Infrastructure, Osahon Abraham Amiolemen gave the hint at the ongoing Ministerial briefing by Civil Commissioners at the State House of Assembly, Benin-City on Tuesday.

Amiolemen, while briefing on the activities of his ministry between January and September, 2018, noted that the state government awarded N52,814,329,790,39 billion road contracts out of which a total of N31,340,800,056,56 billion have been paid to contractors, adding that the expenditures are for certificates that have been approved.

Furthermore, he disclosed that the sum of N13,963,738,463,56 billion was allocated to the ministry in the 2018 budget, but that only N11,905,679,257,66 billion has been accessed, leaving a balance of N2,058,059,206,90 billion with the the government.

He also added that over 200 Kilometres of roads have been awarded by the state government in the period under review across the three senatorial districts, just as 65 Kilometres of the roads were either rehabilitated, constructed, completed and commissioned, while another 152.253 Kilometres are ongoing and at various stages of completion.

Similarly, he hinted that 67 roads have been designed and awaiting procurement processes while a total of four roads have also been installed with street lights as part of government’s plans to illuminate some of major roads a night.

The commissioner, explained that the sum of N94,919 million was generated internally by the ministry against N80 million target.

In the same vein, he said that the state government is designing a 10-year master plan on road sector with a view to prioritize roads construction in the state.
He however attributed paucity of funds, heavy down pour to the slow pace of roads construction in the state.

“The roads in Edo State are thousands of Kilometres and if we want to address all the roads at once, we will be counting hundreds of billions of naira which the House know that the state government will not be able to get in a particular year.

“Our budget for this year was N13 billion and the road projects that have been awarded that we brought from last year to this year is over N40 billion”, he said.

Some of the lawmakers, in their remarks lamented the deplorable state of roads in the state and called on the ministry to do all that is within its power to address the situation.