The Kwara and Niger state houses of assembly have called on the federal government to include the completion of the Ilorin-Jebba highway in the 2016 budget to urgently address the hardship being encountered by motorists plying the road.

The chairman of the Northern Nigerian Speakers' forum Alhaji Ahmed Marafa made the joint call in Jebba when he led the legislators of the two houses on a visit to the highway to understand the pains and hardship being encountered by motorists plying the route.

The legislators expressed their displeasure that the highway linking the north and southern parts of the country had claimed many lives and crippled socio- economic activities of the people due to its present deplorable condition, saying that no road is as bad as the highway in the country.

Ahmed Marafa who is the Niger State speaker and his Kwara State counterpart, Ali Ahmad said their states had virtually been cut off many parts of the country as Nigerians avoid the road as much as they could. Ali Ahmad who lamented that all federal roads in Kwara state are in deplorable condition, appealed to the federal government to urgently fix the Ilorin-Jebba highway and other federal roads in the state. Ahmed Marafa recalled a resolution of the Niger State House of Assembly on December 10 2015 on the federal government to take immediate action in dualizing the Ilorin-Jebba highway in particular and rehabilitate other federal roads in Niger State.

Earlier, the Controller of Federal Ministry of Works in Kwara State, Engineer Omotayo Awosanya, while briefing the legislators on the highway said the 96-kilometre highway asphalt overlay rehabilitation project was awarded to CGC Nigeria Limited at a cost of N14.5 billion in December 2013.

Engineer Awosanya who said N1b was given as part payment of N2b mobilization fee, disclosed that the contractor handling the project abandoned it due to non-payment of the remaining N1b mobilization fee.

This, he said was occasioned by zero allocation for the project in the 2015 budget, thereby making 50 kilometres of the highway, which he described as Trans-Sahara road network, to collapse and become impassable for numerous road users.

He however disclosed that the contractor handling the project, despite non-release of the outstanding payment by the federal government, had agreed to return to site with the hope that the new leadership in the country would demonstrate greater political will to include the completion of the road in next year's budget.