The senator representing Adamawa South District in the National Assembly (NASS), Binos Yeroe and other stakeholders have cried out over the deplorable condition of abandoned Numan-Jalingo Road.
The Numan-Jalingo road is a federal highway stretching about 104 kilometres across Adamawa and Taraba states but has now become deplorable.
It lies within the Adamawa South Senatorial Zone.
Senator Binos Yaroe who spoke in Yola during a media screening of a documentary on the road urged the Federal Government to review the contract for the road and resume rehabilitation work.
The contract for the federal highway was awarded in July 2017 at N11 billion to Deux Project Ltd and scheduled for completion in 20 months, but more than three years down the line, only three kilometres of the road has been done.
“It is clear from our findings that while the contractor is financially and technically incompetent, Federal Government itself has not been forthcoming with financial mobilization, and these things must be rectified and all necessary moves made to get this project completed,” Sen Binos said.
In the documentary produced by Quest Media Ltd and presented to newsmen under the Fix Numan Jalingo Road campaign, leaders and residents of Adamawa and Taraba, including the Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, lamented the bad condition of the road and called for immediate remedy.
“The deplorable nature of the road affects the economic life of our people, as even our farmers find it difficult to move their products,” Governor Ishaku said.
He said he would have fixed the part of the road in his state and would have appealed to his Adamawa State counterpart to fix his part, if not because the Federal Government is averse to states doing roads and claiming cost.
He, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to either remobilize the contractor back to work or cancel and re-award the contract.
Others who commented on the road expressed similar views, stressing that the Numan-Jalingo road is a vital highway which has unfortunately become not only almost impassable but makes users of the road easy targets for armed robbery and kidnapping of travelers.
Terry Paul
Paul Terry is a publisher and an author in wowplus.net and other news channel
