Senate Asks FG To Declare State Of Emergency On Roads

Nigeria Senate on Tuesday asked the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on federal roads across the country.

The lawmakers made the request during Tuesday’s plenary at the National Assembly in Abuja.

Gershom Bassey, the Senator representing Cross River South senatorial district in the Nigerian Senate, raised a motion on the deplorable state of federal roads in Nigeria.

Bassey also informed the Senate that the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has failed to remit the five per cent user charge of fuel pump price to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), as stipulated in the Act for the rehabilitation of federal roads.

The Senate ordered its committees on Petroleum and FERMA to investigate the alleged non-remittance of funds by PPPRA for the rehabilitation of roads in the country.

The Senate’s plea comes eight months after Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari signed an executive order allowing the private sector to build federal government roads in the country.

The Executive Order 007 2019, signed by Buhari, is on Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.

The order was to allow private companies to construct major roads across the country and be paid in the form of tax credit.