OYO ROAD PROJECTS•• We Are Commitment To Infrastructure Development In Oyo - FG 

The Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, Mr Kayode Ibrahim, yesterday, stated that the Federal Government is committed to road infrastructure development in the state.

Ibrahim stated this while speaking with newsmen in Igboho, during an inspection tour of the Federal Government road projects in the Oke-Ogun zone of the state.

The controller who said the Federal Government was doing a lot of works in the state, specifically referred to the Iseyin-Agunrege-Saki Road axis where contractors were carrying out emergency repairs of the failed sections of the road.

He said the Igboho-Igbeti Road project, which had been neglected for years, “is now receiving the attention of the present administration.

The controller said: “We have brought an intervention project here to remove the bad portions and replace them with asphalt.”

“We are doing intervention works on the 38 kilometres Igboho-Igbeti Road, one is the first five kilometres that is very bad, thereafter, do maintenance work on 11 kilometres.”

Ibrahim, however, expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far on the road by the indigenous contractors handling the intervention projects.

He said the contractors were doing perfectly well with the level of work already carried out, adding that indigenous contractors needed to be encouraged.

The controller said that the present administration was doing well as regards the encouragement of the indigenous contractors.

According to him, quite a lot of indigenous contractors have been engaged to carry out emergency maintenance works on the Federal roads across Oyo State.

In an interview, a former Secretary of Igboho Community, Mr Thomas Aridunnu, appreciated the Federal Government over the road projects.

Aridunnu said fixing the Igboho-Igbeti road was the least expectation of Igboho community at this period.

He commended the Federal Government for bringing road infrastructure development to the community, pledging that the community would continue to support the present administration.

Similarly, a motorist plying Iseyin-Saki route, Mr Jide Abiodun, said that the ongoing repair of Iseyin-Saki Road had enhanced smooth vehicular movement.

Abiodun said that the intervention work would bring crashes on the road to zero level.

In another development, the Controller advised the landowners and farmers to approach the state government for compensation on their land acquired for the ongoing Oyo-Ogbomoso road project.

Some people whose landed property was affected by the Oyo-Ogbomoso section of the Ibadan-Ilorin road project, recently staged a protest at Gambari Village, near Ogbomoso.

They protested over the alleged non-payment of about N2.8 billion compensation by the Federal Government since 2011.

According to him, there is a Federal Executive Council decision, which says each state, where every Federal Government project domiciled as a host, should make provision for the right-of-way.

“Because, by the Land Use Act, land belongs to the state, so if we are building a road in any state, such host state has to provide the right-of-way.”

“So, Federal Government no longer pays compensation for the right-of-way acquired for road project,” he said.

Ibrahim explained that prior to the decision of the Federal Executive Council, every single structure marked for demolition was fully paid for (compensation) even, before demolition.

He, however, said there were some outstanding marked structures that were not demolished because the Federal Government has not paid for them, So they can not be asking us to pay compensation again,” he said.

Ibrahim further explained that compensation for all property demolished in 2010 was fully settled.

He said that some of the aggrieved landowners’ agents had demanded compensation, but they were advised to appropriately and told them the position of the Federal Government.

@INSTANTnews