The Minister of State for Works, Bello Goronyo, has expressed concern over acts of sabotage along the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway project.

Mr Goronyo, while inspecting the road project on Saturday, urged community leaders to caution residents against such obnoxious acts.

He lamented, “Maintenance means a lot. Prevention of road abuse is part of road maintenance. Particularly, we have noticed, even along this corridor, that people go overnight and begin to break some of the road infrastructure and remove iron roads.

“We have noticed that even on completed projects along the Jaji bridge in Kaduna, some hoodlums (Baba Bola and Iron Condemned) went through the bridge to remove iron rods.

“On this one, you can notice some people are drying their grains, they are dumping refuse, and they are also breaking our roads to pass some cables.”

Mr Goronyo called on the community leaders along that route to caution their people to try as much as possible to keep the road in good condition.

He said this was necessary because the federal government had made huge investments in the infrastructure and had made a commitment to completing the project.

Mr Goronyo expressed satisfaction at the rate of work being done.

Also speaking, Clement Ogbuagu, the director of federal highways at the Federal Ministry of Works, said the inspection team has seen all stages of work on the project, and it is encouraging.

According to Mr Ogbuagu, the contractor is not doing badly, adding that they have progressed very well.

He said, “We have been on them to meet up with the timetable that we gave them that we agreed on.

“We are telling Nigerians and the world at large that we are not sleeping; we are not resting on our oars on this road because this road is so important to Mr President.

“We in the Federal Ministry of Works know the importance of this road, and we are employing every necessary effort to make sure that this road is delivered and delivered on time.”

Mr Ogbuagu explained that the road was one of the fastest-progressing road construction projects in Nigeria at the moment, and the quality of work was good and very satisfactory.

(NAN)