Tanker Explosion: We’ll Fix Felele Road, Fashola Assures Kogi Gov

 Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has assured Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello that the bad portion of the road at the Felele end of the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road will be fixed. 

Fashola gave the assurance when Bello visited him in Abuja on Wednesday to solicit urgent Federal Government’s attention to the deplorable condition of federal roads in Kogi. 

The governor’s visit came at the wake of a fatal road accident involving a petrol laden tanker and other vehicles on the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road that resulted in an explosion which claimed over 20 lives in the Felele area of Lokoja on Wednesday. 

The governor told the minister that the deplorable state of all federal roads across the state have led to recurrent accidents in the state.  

He said the state government has done a lot in maintaining the roads but owing to the large volume of traffic on the roads, in view of its strategic location as gateway state, such repairs and maintenance do not stand the test of time.  

He appealed to the minister to expedite action in carrying out reconstruction of roads across the state to curtail the preventable accidents on the road.  

The governor appealed to the minister to direct contractors handling repairs on the Murtala Bridge at Jamata to speed up the rate of work, noting that the slow pace of work has caused the commuters untold hardship.  

Bello informed the minister that he had to personally be on ground on the Lokoja -Abuja road on July 26 to help other agencies to control the traffic gridlock caused on the Lokoja -Abuja road as a result of the damaged portion of the bridge.