Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan has charged the Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada, to take urgent steps to reconstruct the 18 kilometer Kabba-Ogidi-Ayere-Ondo State Boundary road.
Such a step, he said, would relieve the people of the affected communities of the great pains associated with commuting from one point to the other.
Onaiyekan, spoke at the funeral mass for the late Olujumu of Ijumu, Oba Jerome Ojo Sumanu held at the St Thomas Catholic Church, Ogidi-Ijumu, Kogi State at the weekend.
The road, built in the late 1950s by the colonial administration was part of the Trunk A Owo-Kabba road. It was contracted out for reconstruction by the administration of former Governor Ibrahim Idris but the contractor abandoned the project after collecting most of the contract sum from the state government.
While work on the first contract was still pending, the state government announced the re-award of the job for the sum of N200 million to another contractor who never showed up on the site.
As a result on the non-completion of the job, the road has been washed away by rains causing much agony to commuters who now spend an average of one hour on the road instead of the normal 15 minutes.
Cardinal Onaiyekan told the state Deputy Governor, Arc. Yomi Awoniyi who represented Governor Wada on the occasion that he believed Awoniyi must have felt the same pains he felt on the road.
He appealed for compassion on the part of the state governor to ameliorate the plight of the people of the affected communities.
Onaiyekan reminded the Governor that the state government kept its promise of rehabilitating a road in Kabba named after the Cardinal when he took up his new office and appealed to him to keep faith by rehabilitating the Kabba-Ogidi-Ayere-Ondo State Boundary road.
In his tribute, Wada praised the late Oba Jerome Sumanu for his patriotism, and courageous leadership.
He described the departed monarch as a humble man who led his people with utmost sense of responsibility and in the fear of God.
The President, Ogidi Development Union, Mr. Tunde Ipinmisho in his tribute described the late Oba Jerome Sumanu as a man with a rare passion for Ogidi-Ijumu, his place of birth.
He said the late monarch was sent by Ogidi to Iyara, the local government headquarters to ascend the rotational first class Olujumu throne at a most challenging time.
Ipinmisho said Ogidi-Ijumu was proud that Sumanu reigned as a good ambassador of Ogidi and that by his activities at Iyara; he brought great honour and glory to his home town.
He prayed that God would comfort the Sumanu family and Ijumuland as a whole.
