News

June 16, 2009

Edo Assembly summons FERMA boss, works commissioner

By Gabriel Enogholase
BENIN—EDO State House of Assembly yesterday in Benin summoned the Controller, Federal Ministry of Works, Head of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the state as well as the state Commissioner for Works over the deteriorating state of Benin – Auchi-Abuja highway.

Vanguard investigations indicated that a lot of lives and property worth millions of Naira have been lost, especially at the stretch of the road between Ewu and Agbede and Agbede- Egono axis due to the deplorable state of those portions of the road.

Besides, road signs that would have warned motorists of the dangers ahead have not been placed in strategic   positions on the road, right from Benin to Auchi by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), the agency responsible for a such task.

The resolution by the House to summon the federal agencies as well as the state Ministry of Works was sequel to a motion by Mr. Phillip Shaibu, representing Etsako-West constituency 1 in the House who drew the attention of his colleagues to the deplorable state of the road, especially at the Agbede-Egono axis.

He said that due to the failed portions of the road along that axis, many Nigerians have lost their lives, while property worth millions of Naira have been destroyed due to the frequent occurrence of accident in the failed portions.