Fall of Sambisa: Borno resumes road construction

Following last week’s declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari and the military that soldiers have sacked Boko Haram insurgents from Sambisa forest and took control of the area, Borno State government said it has concluded arrangements to resume the construction of eight roads in the state linking various communities. Addressing a news conference in his office, […]

Following last week’s declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari and the military that soldiers have sacked Boko Haram insurgents from Sambisa forest and took control of the area, Borno State government said it has concluded arrangements to resume the construction of eight roads in the state linking various communities.

Addressing a news conference in his office, the state commissioner for Works and Transport, Alhaji Adamu Lawan said the eight roads covering a distance of 261 kilometers, lead to so many farming and economic driven communities.

He said work on the construction of the roads was put on hold following persistent Boko Haram attacks in the state that crippled all economic activities in the state and resolved to resume work following last week’s defeat of the insurgents and takeover of the forest by government forces.

He listed the affected roads to include the Gambouru-Wulgo road with a distance of 11 kilometers, Dikwa-Mallam Maja-Banki road measuring 98 kilometers, Garin Gada-Balbaya-Fikahyel road with a distance of 50 kilometers, Miringa-Gunda road with a distance of 40 kilometers, Pulka-Kirawa road measuring 16 kilometers, Wiza-Khuhum road measuring 16 kilometers and Damboa-Chibok-Mbalala road with a distance of 30 kilometers.

The commissioner said, “We held extensive review of these road projects in consultation with our teeming contractors, agencies and other sstakeholders and came up with a road map of completing as many road construction as possible, including the suspended ones in 2017.”

He said the contractor handling the Mbalala road has since remobilized to site following the recapture of Sambisa forest by the military. He lamented that less than 50 percent of the N33.74 billion budgetary proposal of his ministry for the 2016 budget was appropriated even as less than 50 budgetary performance was recorded. He attributed the low budgetary performance to Boko Haram insurgency.