Gov. Sani Bello of Niger has directed the reopening of the Minna-Bida road to articulated vehicles, to ease transportation of goods and services.
He gave the directives at a news conference, after a meeting chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, the Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of Department of State Service, the Group Managing Director of NNPC and the Minister of Works.
Bello explained that the meeting was to discuss issues arising from the closure of the Minna-Bida road and the state-owned roads.
He said he made a presentation on the deplorable state of the roads in the state, which was unanimously acknowledged to be due to articulated vehicles carrying excessive loads of liquid and dry cargoes.
Bello noted that such action had led to the destruction of the roads and caused hardship on other roads users.
The governor disclosed that as a way forward, the following agreements had been reached:
”That no articulated vehicle carrying petroleum products of more than 45,000 litres or 35 tons of dry cargo will be allowed to ply the roads.
”That there was need for special intervention for remedial works to be executed on Federal roads to serve as alternative routes, for trucks to move their products.
”That the State Government would require support from the Federal Government to carry out remedial work on Farin-Doki-Minna-Bida road, for easy movement.
”The Ministry of Works said there were ongoing road repairs by the Federal Government and reiterated its commitment to completing the project,” he said.
The governor, however, said that he had directed the relevant agencies to temporarily open the closed state roads to ease the hardship of motorists and other road users.
He appealed to the people of the state to be patient with the decision of reopening the roads, adding that the Federal Government’s intervention would be effected soon. (NAN)
