Senate mandates FG to reconstruct bad roads, provide ambulances

  The Senate on Wednesday mandated the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency to immediately begin the repair of major highways across the country that are currently in deplorable conditions.

  The  upper chamber also  urged the federal government and other relevant agencies to establish ambulances on the Highways as a means of saving lives of people involved in roads accidents.

  The senators gave the directive following a motion  by Senator Duro Faseyi (PDP) Ekiti North, on the demise of six prominent medical doctors and their driver from Ekiti State who died in a road accident on April 24, on Abuja-Kaduna highway.

  The Senate condoled with the families of the departed, the government and the people of Ekiti State, Nigerian Medical Association and also prayed for the quick recovery of the survivors.

  It asked the Federal Road Safety Corps, to step up public enlightenment campaign on the use of the highway codes and safe motoring.

  Faseyi, who moved the motion,  expressed grief over  the demise of the six medical doctors and their driver who were on their way to the 54th Annual Conference of the NMA in Sokoto State.

  Senator Theodore Orji, in his contribution, was emphatic that something beyond our imagination must have led to series of accidents on the  Kaduna – Abuja Highway because late Minister of State, James Ocholi also died at the same spot with his wife and son.

  Also speaking,  Senator Shehu Sani (APC), Kaduna Central, noted  that he was the first to have visited the scene of accident on Kaduna Road as well as the injured, explaining that there were no spirits responsible for accidents on Kaduna Road.

  He asked the Federal Government to ensure that there was  adequate funding of Federal Road Safety Corps as well as the establishment of Hospitals on the Highways.

He said, “I was the first to visit the injured six Medical Doctors from Ekiti State and the scene of the accident. There are no spirits on that road, but the spirit is in Nigerians to do the right things.”

  Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, noted that  road crashes have  brought out ineptitude of responsive mechanism of relevant agencies.

He said, “It is obvious now that road accidents on Nigeria Roads has brought out ineffective response mechanism and I think this should be looked into with a view to strengthening relevant agencies.”