Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi on Monday at Ado-Ekiti assured that his administration would give priority attention to the rehabilitation of township roads in 2022.
Fayemi gave the assurance during his monthly radio and television interview programme, “Meet Your Governor’’.
According to the governor, the intervention would bring about meaningful development and boost the economic status of the people.
Fayemi stated that he would continue to ensure adequate welfare of the people by ensuring that he executed projects and programmes that would enliven their lives.
He listed roads to get attention as Ado Ekiti-Iworoko Road, the Omisanjana-Ajebamdele Road, Odo-Ado-Ekiti Road and Igirigiri Road up to the Ado Local Council headquarters.
Others are Ilawe-Ikere Road, Iloro-Ijurin-Ayegunle-Temidire Road, Ifaki-Esure-Eyio-Awo Road and Itapa-Ijelu-Omu Road.
Stating that his government was not unaware of the challenges posed by the roads, Fayemi promised to address them before the onset of the next rainy season.
He said also that his administration was cooperating with FERMA to ensure rehabilitation of federal roads crossing the state.
The governor said his administration also made efforts to construct the Ado-Ikere-Akure Road, but was stopped by the Federal Government which promised to do it.
This, he explained, was in spite of the fact that his administration had accessed fund for the project.
He explained further that the fund was given to the Federal Government, which had in turn, awarded the contract on the road.
“The challenge we are facing is due to the nature of our federal system.
“We got money to fix the road; the owner of the road refused, and said we could not fix the road.
“We transferred the money to them, they awarded the contract.
“There is a contractor on the road as we speak, but they don’t have enough allocation from the Federal Government in the budget to accelerate the work.
“It’s a N30 billion contract, but if you check the 2021 budget, only N1 Billion was put in it for that road,’’ he said.
Fayemi also promised that the 2022 governorship election in the state would not distract him from executing various programmes and projects scheduled for the year.
He said that his administration had paid more than N1 billion to pensioners in spite of the paucity of funds in the state.
Fayemi debunked rumours that the state collected bailout funds from the Federal Government to pay arrears of workers’ salaries.
The governor said what the state got was bridge finance to fill the gap that had been created by the deduction for the repayment of an earlier bailout.