Residents lament poor state of roads in Bwari

“Moving goods to market is a source of worry. Whenever we bring goods to the market, we sometimes suffer breakdown of vehicles, delaying our movement thereby cutting down on our sales and profit,” she said.

Some of the residents alleged that government has done little or nothing in alleviating their plights as some of the roads were awarded to contractors but were never completed.

Another taxi driver, John Onoh, alleged that the contractor handling the road from T-junction opposite Skye Bank to Deeper Life has suspended work.

“The renovation work has been abandoned. The town needs accessible roads for the day-to-day activities of the populace,” he said.

Yakubu Abbas, another resident, said, “Since 2014, the road has been dilapidated. Few months back FERMA began work on the road but after few weeks, they are nowhere to be found.”

He urged government to mobilise contractors back to site as accidents are becoming rampant in the area.

“Most politicians are only good at making promises, we need commitment and not promises, they should work toward improving the road up to the rehabilitated Government Girls’ College,” he said.

Another taxi driver, Vincent James, said rehabilitation of the T-Junction road to Kogo started about one month ago. He said the FERMA officials worsened the the situation by abandoning work halfway.

“The road is now worse, I buy more fuel now and make fewer trips,” he said.

John Owi said government raised the people’s hope when the project started, adding that the earlier euphoria has given way to disappointment due to the delay in completing the project.

A commercial motorcyclist, Isah Sanusi said, “These roads are bad. From the market to Kogo is very bad down to Deeper Life. I have lived in Bwari for over 15 years and these roads have always been like this,” he said.

“It makes my business really stressful. I use more fuel plying the roads, but if we increase the fare, customers won’t want to pay It is very tiring. Some days I wake up and do not want to even go out for business,” he said.

A sign board reading, “Contract for rehabilitation and repairs of Bwaritownship roads” is situated at the T-junction in the town. The information on the sign board showed that the contract was awarded to Wadata Groups Ltd by Federal Road Maintenance Agency.

“They only mark some segments of the road for rehabilitation, but since then nothing has been done. The contractors should be mobilised back to site as life has continued to be unbearable for motorists on the roads. From Ijakoro junction to Kuduru junction it is too bad, government needs to come to our aid,” Hussein Hassan, a motorist lamented.

However, an official at the Information Unit of Bwari Area Council, Roy Emerson, has dispelled calls by the residents for the rehabilitation of roads as politically motivated.

“Their complaints are political, if I don’t know a thing I have to go to the source to find out. Area councils don’t do roads. It is not their exclusive mandate but to open up feeder roads in rural villages,” he said.