Niger Assembly gives 48hrs ultimatum for ministry to fix collapsed Minna-Bida road

The decision was made by the assembly after Mr. Mohammed Haruna (APC), representing Bida II, raised a matter of public significance.

At the plenary on Tuesday, September 4, 2022 in Minna, he urged the government to act quickly to prevent a complete closure of the Minna-Bida road.

While reading the House's resolutions, Speaker Abdullahi Bawa instructed the Ministry of Works to repair the Minna-Bida road's alarming sections.

He also urged the executive district of the government to act quickly to prevent further collapse of the Minna-Bida road's remaining sections.

“The security and welfare of the people are stated to be the major goals of the government in Section 14, subsection 2 paragraph (b)”, said Mr. Haruna.

”The only road linking Minna to Bida has been cut off due to the failure of a portion of the road that was washed off as a result of heavy downpours.

”This development has brought hardship to road users as commuters were stranded with perishable goods being destroyed because of the cut-off of a portion of Minna-Bida.

”Patients on referrals to the Federal Medical Centre Bida are also stranded making their conditions worse,” he added.

He urged the state administration to urgently take the necessary action to save the remaining section of the route from Minna to Bida.

Despite the state Route Maintenance Agency's efforts, a part of the Minna-Bida road shut off on Saturday, leaving drivers and commuters stuck (NIGROMA).

The Minna-Kataeregi-Bida and other projects will be funded by a N25 billion loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), which was approved by the Niger House of Assembly in 2019.

The 86km Minna-Kataeregi-Bida road project was reduced from N25 billion to N17 billion so that Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company could handle dualization from 0 to 15 kilometers as state government counterpart finance, with IDB slated to manage the construction of the remaining 71km.

According to the loan arrangement, the IDB would pay for the remaining 71 km of the road, of which only 35 km have been constructed for a total cost of N11 billion. The state government would cover the first 15 km of the road, from Kpakugun to Garatu.