Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State yesterday said his state was not only financially distressed.
He made the revelation while speaking with journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, adding that the infrastructure in the state, especially roads, were in a bad shape.
The governor said the motive behind his meeting with President Buhari was to request for his intervention on critical areas and the refund of N32bn used by the previous administration to fix federal roads.
Uzodinma said the state was in dire need of financial intervention from the federal government with its present insolvent situation.
Also yesterday, the governor of Ogun, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who was accompanied by former governor Olusegun Osoba to meet President Buhari, said he sought the assistance of the president to allow the Federal Ministry of Works to transfer some federal roads to Ogun and Lagos states.
Abiodun said the highways, which would be commercialized, were Shagamu-Ikorodu road, Epe-Ijebu-Ode road, and Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road, which are considered as alternative routes to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. He said the government must begin to consider alternative routes to the rest of the country because the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway might not be able to carry the anticipated traffic after its completion.
“Those roads are commercially viable. It’s a Public Private Partnership (PPP). It will be contractor financed,” he added. The governor said he also solicited the support of the president for the government’s agriculture programme which would generate up to 40,000 job opportunities.
DAILY TRUST
