CHINESE EXPATRIATES FLEE LOKOJA-OKENE ROAD PROJECT SITE OVER INCESSANT KIDNAPPING

He pledged that with adequate funding, phase one of the section awarded to his company would be completed in December as scheduled, stating that section one of the Lokoja-Benin road dualisation project was divided into two phases with phase one, Okene bypass covering from Itakpe Junction to Ajokuta Junction. Abubakar said the phase two of the project awarded to his company covered Obajana Junction to Itakpe Junction.

However, Supervisor Section one, Lokoja-Benin Road Project, Eleweke Ndubuisi of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing said the project was awarded 2012, but blamed the delay in the completion of the project on the economic recession, adding that phase one of the project was earlier awarded as Okene bypass to ease traffic in Okene town.

He said the phase two was later awarded but noted that the contractor was currently concentrating on the 18 kilometre phase one of the project, adding that the phase was 70 per cent completed, and that the injection of Sukuk fund to the project had facilitated its execution.

“With the Sukuk fund released to this project, we were able to execute and complete seven kilometres of the project,” he said, just as he blamed the incidences of kidnapping at the site on the fact that the road was a virgin project being constructed inside forest.

The supervisor said the kidnappers were taking advantage of the loneliness and large forest surrounding the project to perpetrate the criminal act, but assured that the project was still ongoing as expected with the support of the security agencies and security arrangement put in place by the company.