Governor Inuwa Yahaya on Monday paid a working visit to the federal ministry of Works and Housing in Abuja where he met with the minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN).
After a closed-door session with the minister, Governor Yahaya told journalists that part of his reason for the visit was to draw the attention of the minister to the deteriorating condition of some federal roads in Gombe and other 5 linked states, especially the Bauchi- Gombe, Gombe- Kwami- Dukku- Darazo, Gombe- Biu, Gombe- Bajoga- Potiskum and Gombe-Yola roads among others.
“I came to see the Honourable Minister specifically with the recent development on the Federal Highways. You know Gombe is at the centre of the North East. All the other 5 states of the North East are linked with Gombe, meaning we have road links that are federally owned between Gombe and the remaining states”, he said.
He explained further that most of those roads are being threatened by flood this year and they need urgent attention.
“I also came here to draw FG’s attention so that these roads will get repaired otherwise all of Gombe State will be cut off other states and that will be too bad,” he added.
Asked about how his visit to the ministry of works will impact the Gombe 10-year Development Plan, one of the brilliant ideas he initiated within the two years of his stewardship, he responded swiftly thus: “For any meaningful development to take place, infrastructure is the key. And out of the entire basic infrastructure, you need the roads, you need the railway lines to connect, you need the airport. Virtually every facility need a road and this Ministry handle roads; so we need to synergise and work together.
“We are working to see that what we have is a document is really working in synergy with the federal government on short and long terms”.
On how his government has so far gone on road development in Gombe, especially the Network 11-100, the governor said that although that is very ambitious, his administration has achieved significant progress.
“We have gone very far. So far within two years, we have worked up to 340 KMs and we have plans to do more because we are doing it in phases. Phase one is done and we are starting the second phase. And together with the Rural Development Access Credit and Mobility project of the Ministry of Agriculture, we are going to do a lot in terms of more connectivity using the rural access that is going to serve the rural people”, Governor Yahaya added.
Source: leadership
