FEC ASKS STATES TO TAKE OVER FEDERAL ROADS

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has appealed to states to take over the repair and maintenance of federal roads  to reduce the burden on the federal government.
The council made the appeal yesterday during a two-hour meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It said states that could afford to take over federal highways should do so as quickly as possible so that the roads do not go into total deterioration.
Briefing State House correspondents, Women Affairs Minister, Aisha Alhassan, said the FEC approved a memo presented by the Minister of Power, Works, Housing and Urban Development, Babatunde Fashola, for the re-designation of two roads in Kaduna State for  transfer from the federal to state government  as requested by Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
Alhassan said El-Rufai had sent a request to President Buhari to re-designate the Nnamdi Azikwe and the Ahmadu Bello Expressways in Kaduna as state roads so that the state government would have the power, without any inhibition, to work on the roads to make them better for Kaduna indigenes.
The minister noted that the council was very pleased with El-Rufai’s request because ordinarily, other state governors should have requested for permission to repair and be reimbursed.