Niger Gov Orders Immediate Closure of State Roads to Articulated Vehicles

The Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, Tuesday directed
the closure of all state roads to articulated vehicles.

Bello personally supervised the closure of one of the roads, the
Minna-Bida road where he instructed government officials and security
officials to give effect to the directive.

He said the decision to close the road to the category of vehicles “is
to allow the construction company handling their rehabilitation to
speed up the job”.

Some of the state roads affected by the governor’s order are
Minna-Bida, Lapai-Paiko, Chanchaga Bridge-Maikunkele, Muye-Lapai and
Zungeru-Wushishi.

The governor said the action was taken after series of meetings with
the relevant stakeholders, following complaints by the construction
company handling the rehabilitation work over the activities of the
heavy trucks on the roads.

Bello appealed to owners of those category of vehicles and the public
to cooperate with the government as the decision is not a deliberate
action to inflict pains on the people but a step taken in the overall
interest of the good of all and those affected.

The state government had awarded the contract for the construction of
the Minna-Bida road to an indigenous construction company about seven
months ago at N23.4 billion with a completion period of 18 months,
while the road from Minna to Chanchaga bridge was awarded three months
ago at over N2 billion.

However, because articulated vehicles continued to ply the roads,
coupled with the heavy rains, not more than 5 per cent of the jobs
have been done.