Reps query Fashola on federal roads

MEMBERS of the House of Representatives Committee on Works on Thursday queried the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on even distribution of road projects in the country.

The minister however told the committee members that he was working in line with the mandate given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Some members of the committee had complained that road projects in their area were not been attended to, but the minister said that, despite the complaint there is no state in the country that one road project or the other is not going on.

According to the minister, the president made it very clear to him that the roads that are of priorty to him include: Lagos-Ibadan, Oyo-Ilorin, second Niger Bridge, Sango-Ota, Kano-Maiduguri, Enugu-Portharcout among others.

He added that the president told him that the reason he chose those roads are personal to him.

He further stressed that without those roads been fixed large chunk of the country would be cut off from the country, stressing that, “If the president has given me that mandate that does not make me a minister for part of the country.”

He also told the lawmakers that the challenges been faced by the ministry had to do with indebtness to contractors, which he said was hindering progress of work in the road sector.

The chairman of the committee, Hon Toby Okechukwu, had earlier complained about the amount of money released by the ministry of finance for execution of road projects, saying we need to have 100 per cent releases as it applied to works ministry.