Date: 2020-08-19

Kwara State government has said that it will partner with public-spirited individuals to rehabilitate some of the roads in the state.

State Commissioner for Works and Transport Suleiman R. Iliyasu said this in Ilorin, the state capital.

Speaking while inspecting a five-kilometre Kankatu Market-Shao Garage road, being rehabilitated by Tajudeen Olesin Foundation, the state commissioner for Works, Suleiman Iliyasu, said that the state government would also engage road engineers to supervise the road project to ensure it is built to standard.

"I appreciate the effort of the sponsor of the project. We will support him with whatever assistance he wants to render and we'll ensure that quality is not compromised.

"We know it is our responsibility to fix the road and we have seen a gentleman that wants to support, and we are very happy. We will work with him and make sure a good job is done.

"For now engineers are on-site, the engineers know the standard of the Ministry of Works and Transport. Therefore, the engineers have to follow the standard."

The road project is an intervention to ensure that the road is motorable.

Kankatu road which also links Amule Secondary School has been in a deplorable state for some years.

Speaking with journalists on the rehabilitation site, founder of the foundation, Ibrahim Tajudeen Olesin, said the project was part of the foundation's community intervention programme.

He noted that the road had been in deplorable condition for sometimes, hence the need for his foundation to intervene.

Olesin added that the foundation was established in 2015 for humanitarian purposes and community development.

He said that the foundation had embarked on school renovation, giving out of scholarship to thousands of students as part of its educational development project.

He noted with displeasure that the economic viability of the road was dying despite its social and economic importance to the residents of the community.

He explained that the intervention would cover only grading as a temporary measure pending the intervention of the state government.

Olesin appealed to the state government to quickly come to the aid of the community through the complete reconstruction.