Controversy Trails Revocation of 170km FG Road Contract in Katsina 

* CSOs, residents fault Gov Radda 

Francis Sardauna in Katsina

Controversy is currently trailing the revocation of the 170 kilometres Mararaban-Kankara-Katsina Federal Government road project, a development stakeholders described as unacceptable.

The road, which was reconstructed by the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) in 1997, had witnessed numerous cases of kidnapping for ransom, killings and accidents due to its deplorable condition.

Hence, it was re-awarded by President Bola Tinubu to a renowned Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain (name withheld) in the state this year, but the contract was recently revoked by the Federal Government due to political misconceptions.

Sources privy to the contract and affairs of governance in the state alleged that Governor Dikko Umaru Radda and other All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts coaxed President Tinubu to rescind the contract because it was awarded to the PDP chieftain.

Also, the Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Political Matters, Ibrahim Kabir Masari, recently revealed that the road contract was repealed by the Federal Government “because it was awarded to a wrong person”.

Masari, while addressing beneficiaries of Federal Government’s palliatives in Katsina at the People’s Square, added that Governor Radda met President Tinubu and demanded the revocation and re-awarding of the project to another contractor.

He said: “The contract for the reconstruction of the road from Mararaban Kankara, Kankara, Yantumaki, Dutsinma, Kurfi to Katsina was awarded but it was awarded to the wrong person.

“Therefore, the Katsina State Governor met Mr. President and asked him to revoke the contract and re-award it to another contractor that will do a better job.”

But Masari’s revelation did not go down well with civil society organisations (CSOs), motorists and other residents of the state who have since described Radda’s decision as an aberration.

The National Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, condemned what he termed the abrupt cancellation of the Federal Government’s road project in the state. 

He said unless Governor Radda is running a monocratic system of governance, he should not play politics with developmental projects that will enhance social and commercial activities of the state.

He accused the governor of unnecessarily playing politics with the development of the people that voted him into power, adding that residents of Katsina had suffered the “unfulfilled promises” of former President Muhammadu Buhari for eight years.

Charanchi said: “This was the same way he (Buhari) kept promising that he would reconstruct and dualize the Kano-Katsina road, but for eight years, he failed to complete that project.

“Now we were impressed by the way President Tinubu, just a few months into his tenure, awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the Mararaban Kankara to Katsina road which links seven local government areas of the state. 

“Therefore, we were very disappointed to hear that it was our governor himself that plotted to revoke the contract. It is indeed very disappointing and shameful.”

A resident of Kankara, Sani Mohammed, noted that the cancellation of the road project has worsened the spate of kidnapping and killings of residents in villages and communities along the federal road.

He said the road was scrapped and reconstruction commenced, but from the time the project was stopped till now, many people have been abducted and villages raided by marauding terrorists.

Mohammed added that: “More than 50 villages have been attacked between Burdugau, Yargoje, Kuka-sheka, Danmarke and Kankara because the road has been closed, security agencies cannot come to our aid during attacks.

“Similarly, because vehicles have stopped plying the road, the area is too quiet, this is why bandits attack us at any time of the day.”

Another resident from Danmusa Local Government, Aliyu Yantumaki, expressed worry over the delay in re-awarding the contract considering the bureaucracy involved in awarding and releasing funds for road projects in the country.

According to him, “A lot of bureaucracy and delays are involved in awarding and releasing funds for this kind of project. It is 170 km long—how long will it take to re-award the contract? It might take years.”

However, Radda had earlier told a gathering that he had met President Tinubu and made a case for three federal road projects in the state which will commence soon.