The Senate has urged the Federal Government to earmark N500bn from the N1.9trillion Service Wide Vote in the budget for re-construction of federal roads affected by the 2022 flood disaster across the country.
The resolutions of the upper chamber followed a motion by Senator Gershom Bassey (PDP Cross Rivers South) titied, “The negative impact of the 2022 flood on Nigeria roads and the need for urgent and improved funding of FERMA from Service Wide Vote & NNPC Tax Credit Scheme.
Senator Bassey noted that 2022 has recorded the worse flood in over a decade as the rise in water has further worsened the deplorable state of roads across the country
He added that the environmental disaster caused by this year’s flood has washed off most parts of the roads thereby creating economic and human security crises.
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He added that this year’s festivity season will be greatly impacted negatively as a result of the deplorable state of roads occasioned by the 2022 road.
The Senate therefore directed that the NNPC Limited Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme should be expanded to cover maintenance of affected sections of federal roads.
The upper chamber also resolves to call on the Federal Government to Declare a State of Emergency on Federal Roads and improve its funding by dedicating part of the Service Wide Vote allocation of N500bn to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency for the urgent rehabilitation of roads ravaged by the 2022 floods.
Editor : Ena Agbanoma
