By Kenneth Orusi, Asaba
The promise by Delta State governor, Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to complete all road projects especially in Warri and Asaba may not be feasible after all.
Uduaghan had promised to ensure free flow of traffic on major roads during the yuletide season before or on December 15th, 2012. Of the over 150 roads proposed for construction or rehabilitation in the state, only 10 have been completed.
The state government had on Wednesday November 7, declared a state of emergency on all roads in the state to enable construction and rehabilitation work to commence as the government had targeted the middle of December, 2012 for the completion of all the roads in the state.
The government’s decision was made this known through the Commissioner of Works, Mr. Funkekeme Solomon after its State Executive Council (SEC), meetings in Government House, Asaba.
The Works Commissioner had said, “The state government has embarked on the rehabilitation of all Township roads which have been awarded to the Direct Labour Agency (DLA),“

“The project must be delivered by the agency on or before December 15th, 2012“, Mr Solomon declared.

With less than two weeks to the end of 2012, FrontiersNews investigations have shown that the delay in the release of funds to Direct Labour Agency (DLA) is responsible for the inability of the Agency to meet the December deadline.
An official of DLA told our correspondent during our investigation that, “the money released to the agency for immediate execution of the projects were not given to it as at when due“.

Our source who did not want his name on print noted that, it took the agency over two weeks to obtain part of the money from the Ministry

He added that “if the funds were released early enough the December 15th deadline was a right timing for the agency to deliver the projects.”

Our investigation revealed that N2billion was released to the agency, which was not up to the initial N2.9billion that was announced by the state governor.

The governor at the meeting announced that N2.9billion have been budgeted for the entire project.

Another staff of the Direct Labour Agency at the construction site in Ezenei road who also would not want his name in print said, “there is no way the ongoing road project would be completed before the end of the year“,

He stated that, the delay in the work is due to poor funding from the ministry.

“The effort put into the project by staff of the agency so far would have yielded better result, if the ministry had played its own part in the early stage“, he noted.

Some of the roads struggling to be delivered to Asaba residents in the festive period include the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) road, Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS) road, Ezenei Avenue road, Ezenei road,

Umuoeze road among others has been abandoned thereby causing concern to the residents of those area, but work is still continuing on the Ezenei road.

Several efforts to reach Commissioner of Works, Mr. Funkekeme Solomon for comments were unsuccessful as staff of the ministry told our correspondent that the Commissioner was out of townJ

CULLED FROM FRONTIERSNEWS