Barely 24 hours after the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, gave a directive, repair works have commenced on the failed sections of Oyo-Ogbomosho Expressway.
The repairs followed a Town Hall meeting on infrastructure initiated by the Federal Government on Wednesday, held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where stakeholders pleaded with the government to repair some bad portions of the road.
Dr AbdulFatai Buhari and Prince Akeem Adeyemi who represent Oyo North senatorial district and Oyo federal constituency respectively and others had begged the federal government to complete the project which started in 2001.
A News Agency of Nigeria correspondent who monitored the commencement of the repair works on Friday, reports that Renoid Construction Company had moved its equipment to the site, effecting repairs.
Omotayo Awosanya, the Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State, and other engineers of the ministry were seen supervising the job.
Awosanya told NAN that the minister had ordered immediate repairs to make the road motorable pending the completion of the ongoing dualisation of the 56-km Oyo-Ogbomoso new road.
He assured motorists and commuters plying the road that the gridlock being experienced on the road would end in the next 12 hours.
On the ongoing construction of Oyo-Ogbomosho new road, the controller said work had reached 56 per cent completion.
He disclosed that the project, which was awarded in 2010, was not given due attention by the previous administration.
According to Awosanya, construction began on the road immediately the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration came power.
He expressed optimism that the new road would be completed soon and urged motorists plying the road to be patient.
A spokesman of RCC, Amir Netzor, told NAN that the repair works would be completed in the next few days.
Netzor said the company would do everything possible to ensure early completion of the new road.
Some truck drivers who spoke with NAN, expressed joy over the repairs and urged the Federal Government to ensure that the contractor handling the new road expedited action.
The duo of Babatude Yusuf and Bitrus James called on the government to declare a state of emergency on deplorable roads across the country.
They noted that motorists plying Lagos-Kaduna Road, for instance, usually spend weeks on the road because of its deplorable condition.
