This Day (Lagos)
Onyebuchi Ezigbo
3 July 2009
Abuja — The Federal Government has asked the management of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to immediately take measures to commence "limited maintenance work" on the damaged portions of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to ease the present difficulties motorists are currently facing.
THISDAY has repeatedly brought the ugly state of the road to the front burner following tales of woes and agony from commuters plying the route to the nation's major sea port in Lagos.
However, the Federal Ministry of Transport said there was little it could do at the moment to arrest the situation since the road was not captured in the 2009 finance appropriation.
A Presidency source told THISDAY yesterday that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had responded to public outcry on the matter and had directed FERMA to move in and carry out rehabilitation work on the road, pending the time government pushes through the supplementary budget later in the year.
"The President has directed FERMA to go and inspect the road and see what it can do at the moment with the resources at its disposal pending the time government is able to pass the supplementary budget to make funds available for comprehensive construction work," he said.
THISDAY gathered that the relevant ministries and agencies connected with transportation were summoned back to State House after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting to address the issue.
Meanwhile, FERMA headquarters has dispatched its engineers and technical officers to Lagos to supervise the emergency repair work as directed by the President.
According to a source at the agency, though the damage on the road requires extensive rehabilitation work, it has decided to carry out limited repairs involving patching up of potholes and constructing drainages that would help dry up the flooded road.
The board of FERMA, led by its chairman and former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abdulkhadir Kure, has already inspected the road.
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