Works Minister David Umahi has ordered contractors to move immediately onto all three sections of the Benin-Asaba Federal Road after the government and the highway’s concessionaire failed to agree on how emergency repairs should proceed.
Umahi said the worsening condition of the strategic corridor had reached a point where public interest required federal intervention despite restrictions contained in the concession arrangement.
According to the ministry, the concessionaire rejected three options proposed by the Federal Government to permit emergency work on failed sections.
The ministry also alleged that the concessionaire subsequently reduced equipment deployed to the road. Those assertions represent the government’s account of the dispute and would require the concessionaire’s response for a complete picture.
Umahi has now directed major contractors already operating within the corridor to restore damaged portions, with the Federal Government bearing the immediate cost.
He also ordered a redesign of the route for more extensive reconstruction using reinforced concrete pavement.
The Benin-Asaba highway is a major commercial and passenger corridor linking the South-West and South-South with the South-East.
The ministry said separate interventions were also under way on the Benin-Sapele, Ifaki-Ekiti-Kabba, Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina, Sagamu-Ore, East-West and Abuja-Lokoja roads.
It said the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano project was expected to be completed by December 2026, while President Bola Tinubu had approved a redesign of the roughly 400-kilometre Lokoja-Benin-Warri road.
In Lagos, work is continuing on Carter Bridge, the Third Mainland Bridge and flood-damaged sections of the Lagos-Ibadan road, while rehabilitation is also under way around the Niger bridges.
The ministry said more than 80 per cent of inherited federal-road projects were currently receiving some form of intervention and argued that the scale of deterioration meant all failed roads could not be fixed simultaneously.
