Residents decry delay on Pandagi-Rimba road project

Residents of Pandagi-Rimba and Ebagi communities in Abaji Area Council of the FCT have decried the slow pace of rehabilitation work on the road linking them handled by an indigenous construction firm. A resident of Pandagi community, Suleiman Ibrahim, who spoke with our reporter said the slow pace of work by the contractor handling the […]

Residents of Pandagi-Rimba and Ebagi communities in Abaji Area Council of the FCT have decried the slow pace of rehabilitation work on the road linking them handled by an indigenous construction firm.

A resident of Pandagi community, Suleiman Ibrahim, who spoke with our reporter said the slow pace of work by the contractor handling the project has continued to inflict hardships on not only motorists but other residents of the affected communities and neighbouring villages.

He said it was unfortunate that the 13km road rehabilitation project, which was awarded eight years ago by the FCT Administration under the supervision of the Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA), is still less than half way done.

He said the only work the contractor has been able to carry out was the construction  of the drainage.

“And since they constructed the water drainage system from Pandagi town down to the junior secondary school since two years ago, which is just about 500 meters distance, no work has been carried out by the contractor again,” he said.

Another resident of Rimba community, Abdulkarim Saidu, also said the slow pace of work on the road has continued to cause hardships to residents of the villages especially the rural farmers.

He noted that the Pandagi-Rimba road, which also links various communities in neighbouring Niger State, has remained in a bad state, thereby affecting both social and economic activities of the rural dwellers.

“Apart from people of other neighbouring villages of Pandagi-Rimba, there are people who always come from other neighbouring villages of Niger State for business or to farm here but we can’t reach their place and they too can only access us by canoe,” he said.

Saidu said the rural dwellers, whose major occupation is farming, are most affected by the bad state of the road, adding that farmers find it difficult to transport their crops to the market.

He said a former chairman of the council, Alhaji Musa Yahaya Muhammad, facilitated the award of the road project eight years ago, but unfortunately the contractor has not been able to carry out half of the work.

“When you were coming from Pandagi, just after the junior secondary school, you would have seen laterite which the contractor poured on the road about a year ago, nothing has been done again,” he said.

Saidu said there are some streams along the road over which culverts were constructed by the contractor but that even those have been washed away by flood, because drainage had not been constructed in those areas.

The Etsu of Rimba, Alhaji Abubakar Ajiya, who conveyed our reporter on his motorcycle to inspect worst parts of the road, said the slow pace of work has deprived their children of attending school at neighbouring villages, as most of the streams along the road always overflow making it difficult for them to cross.

He said whenever it was about to rain,  he mobilized youths of the community to create waterways to avoid flooding of people’s houses.

The Etsu also frowned at the poor handling of one of the bridges by the contractor, saying though he summoned the site engineering to his palace to complain to him over the construction of the bridge, the contractor refused to adhere to his advice.

“In fact, it was to this palace that I summoned the site engineer and complained to him that where they sited the bridge was not proper because we know the kind of heavy flood we experience in this river whenever it rains heavily. But the site engineer told me they were doing the work according to specification,” he said.

The traditional ruler, who expressed displeasure over the slow pace of road project, said the Pandagi-Rimba-Ebagi road was the only access road to Abaji town, and its sad state has affected both social and economic activities of communities in the area.

He said pregnant women, who mostly go to Abaji General Hospital for ante-natal care, also suffer a lot before they arrived Abaji town. He added that he was also forced to abandon his car in Abaji to board motorcycle to his community due to the bad state of the road.

“I bought this motorcycle some months ago because my vehicle can’t ply the road. I have to park my car in Abaji and ride on motorcycle from this village to Abaji just because of the bad nature of the road. The contractor handling the project is also not helping matters because of the slow pace of the work,” he said.

The traditional ruler therefore appealed to the FCT Administration to summon the director of STDA and the contractor to ascertain the true position of the road project.