Travelers during the Christmas Yuletide were groaning in Lokoja, the Kogi State city centre as the road is in terrible condition with many struggling to pass through while cars that broke down were seen parked by the roadside.
The Lokoja Ganaja area is completely in a dilapidated condition leaving travelers going to eastern and south-south parts of the country to suffer on the road with some having their cars broke down as a result of the bad road.
The road is filled with stones and gully which makes it difficult for motorists to pass. From Barracks junction to Ganaja roundabouts that takes less than five minutes, now takes over 30 minutes as a result of the terrible nature of the road.
Although there are signs of road repair in the area, apart from heaps of sand seen on the roadside, there is no single worker in sight. All machines used for the supposed road repair have seen left, leaving the road completely abandoned.
This is even as the road is located at the Lokoja city centre passing through the state commissioner’s quarters and other senior civil servants.
A senior government official, who spoke to MAWA Foundation and did not want her name mentioned, said the road will remain dilapidated for a long period, citing lack of money as a reason the state is yet to fix it. She added that the major challenge facing the state is how to pay workers salaries while road construction is not a priority at the moment.
Worse still, the state government had in the last six five years under the leadership of Mr. Yahaya Bello, the state governor, collected a huge amount of money as its allocation from the federal allocation, yet Lokoja suffers huge infrastructural deficit with the city looking dirty and dilapidated.
Ganaja road is not the only one that is in dilapidated condition in Lokoja, across the city, virtually all the roads are in dilapidated condition and need repair and reconstruction.
