By Vincent Ujumadu
AWKA—A MEMBER of the House of Representatives, Chief Chukwuka Onyema, has appealed to the federal government to take over Onitsha-Atani-Ogwu Ikpele-Rivers State border road currently being handled by Anambra State government because of its importance to the economy of the area.

Work on the project began many years ago, but lack of funds and the difficult terrain of the area appear to be slowing down the progress.

Onyema, who is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, said after inspecting the road which is in the heart of his constituency, his people would be grateful to the federal government if the appeal sailed through.

According to him, most of the people in the area are peasant farmers who need to transport their produce to urban towns through the road, but regretted that the lean resources of the state government could not carry the project to its completion.

Onyema, who represents Ogbaru federal constituency, said the House Committee on Works had done the preliminary presentation for the federal government takeover of the road, adding that the matter would be vigorously pursued before the end of the year.

He also said the National Assembly would take a firm decision on the issue of non-performance of contractors handling federal roads across the country, warning that henceforth, such contractors stood the risk of being blacklisted if there was enough proof that they could not  handle such projects.

He said the National Assembly was worried that despite huge sums appropriated for road construction and mobilization paid to contractors, many of them performed below expectation.

“We have summoned most of the companies to appear before us. While some of them complained of bad whether, others complained of poor funding. We will give them the benefit of doubt up till December this year to enable us identifies those that cannot perform.

“The condition of most of the roads is bad and that is why we have decided to summon them because our people are facing so much hardship on the roads,” he said.

The lawmaker cited Onitsha-Enugu and the Onitsha-Owerri roads, noting that the time for their completion had since elapsed.

According to him, the National Assembly will find out from the contractors the reason for the continued delay.

He regretted that many people from the eastern part of the country no longer come home because of bad roads and promised that something has to be done to ameliorate the situation.