Mashegu Local Government Area, Niger, on Sunday said that it has earmarked N308 million for the construction of 15-kilometre road linking the council Headquarters and other parts of the state.
Malam Saidu Kaboji, chairman of the council, made this known to newsmen after inspecting the progress of work on the road, which was already 75 per cent completion.
Kabogi, who did not give the amount of money that has been paid to the contractor out of the contract sum, said that the local government could not boast of any access road to the council headquarters.
“Since our local government was created in 1996 by late Gen. Sani Abacha’s administration, despite the fact that it has the highest allocation from the federation account, this road had been neglected,’’ he said.
He said that the project, which has six month completion period, was awarded in July and was expected to be completed before the end of the year.
The council boss said that the project when completed would boost economic activities of the area and increase revenue base of the council.
“This road project when completed will reduce the stress of our people using the road and encourage farmers to bring their farm produce to the market,’’ he said.
He noted that despite the accusation of financial misappropriation against the council by some opposition in the area, the construction of the road remained one of the achievements of his administration.
“This road is one of the priorities of my administration because I see it as not only a disgrace that a local government that was created 21 years ago cannot boast of an access road.
“This lack of access road had brought untold hardship on the people.
“Our people are predominantly farmers and when they harvest their produce, they find it difficult to move them to the market.
“This explain why after we were done with electrification of about 60 communities, providing them with transformers, we decided to embark on this road construction, he said.
Kabogi said that the council hardly generates N20 million a year, but if the roads are in good condition and the farmers can bring their goods to the market it will increase our revenue.
He said that aside the road project the council had executed other projects such as provision of 60 boreholes for the 10 wards in the local government.