Abandoned Ajobe Road
A 4.6km road construction project in Ajobe-Awo, a community in Ankpa Local Government Area, Kogi East Senatorial district where the majority of dwellers are farmers has been stalled despite a N60 million allocation budgeted in the 2016 constituency project.
Four months after the Tracka Project Tracking Officer (P.T.O) assigned to track the project visited the community in order to sensitize them about the project; the contractor in charge of the project brought graders to grade the road and construct drainage by the side of the road.
Although the total money awarded for the project was N60 million, looking at the job done then, not up to 1/6 of the money was spent out of the money approved for the project. The project was abandoned until 2017 when the same road was re-awarded for the sum of N43 million. Consistent tracking of the project reveals it has been abandoned with nothing done on it since it was graded. This prompted a further sensitization involving members of the BudgIT team from the Lagos office, who came down Kogi to further sensitize traditional rulers and youth of Ajobe community.
The sensitization witnessed a large turn out from members of the community who contributed to the discourse by asking questions and offering suggestions. Some of them promised to reach out to their representative in the person of Hon. Hassan Omala at the House of Representatives in Abuja. In responding to the questions raised by the community members, the Lagos team promised to contact Hon. Omala on the abandoned state of the project.
Visiting the road construction site recently, the Tracka P.T.O discovered the project has been stalled but a surprise call from one of the youths in the community posited that construction equipment started arriving at the project site and it appears work would soon resume on the abandoned project.
There is no doubting the fact that if the road constructed is completed, it would open a gateway of opportunity for farmers to transfer their produce since the road links over five villages in the area.
