The Chairman, Traditional Council of Chiefs, Gwagwalada Area Council, The Aguma of Gwagwalada, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Muhammadu Magaji, has lauded the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, over infrastructure delivery in Gwagwalada Area Council and other area councils of the territory.
The traditional ruler disclosed this to newsmen while assessing the pace of work on completed and ongoing road projects in the area council embarked upon by the FCT Administration under the watch of the present FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike.
The Aguma of Gwagwalada, who is currently outside the country for lesser hajj, was represented by Umar Faruk Abubakar, a staunch stakeholder in the Palace, and expressed happiness over the minister’s resilience by completing the Paikon Kore-Ibwa road and the pace of work on the Gwagwalada Market – Aguma Palace – Radio Nigeria road ongoing project.
He therefore called for speedy work on the Gwagwalada Market – Aguma Palace – Radio Nigeria ongoing road to be completed before the coming of the rains.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Tribune reported how Wike had on 1st February 2024, inaugurated the construction of the nine-kilometre Paikon Kore to Ibwa road in Gwagwalada, and eight months later, the minister again inaugurated the rehabilitation of the Aguma Palace – Radio Nigeria – New Market Road, also in Gwagwalada.
The Aguma of Gwagwalada said, “I will begin by thanking God Almighty for giving our working minister, the person of Barrister Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, for his resilience over the project that is being carried out in the entire FCT, not Gwagwalada alone, and particularly the projects that are ongoing in Gwagwalada Area Council in respect to the construction of roads.
“The Palace is optimistic, more than any other person, because the Palace is the custodian of the town. So if the town is motorable, His Royal Highness is more palatable than any other person in accepting that. And to this regard, I would want to say that the Honourable Minister of FCT has done a very wonderful job that was abandoned by the previous administration in Gwagwalada.
“Within his coming, within the two years, he has done wonderfully. The market road that has been abandoned for years is at the accomplishment level, and he has taken up that of the market one way, which is ongoing.
“The only request we have now is the Radio House – Aguma Palace road down Kasuwan Dere, down to the Demonstration Primary School, linking up with the Army checkpoint. I think it is the most surviving road in Gwagwalada. And to this effect, I want to believe that by the time the Honourable Minister accomplishes this job, the palace will be looking forward to seeing what it will give as a take-back to the Honourable Minister FCT. When I say take-back, I don’t mean financial take-back, but I mean traditional take-back by the special grace of God.
“We are thanking him most sincerely. On behalf of His Royal Highness, who is outside the country for a lesser hajj, we are also praying that God will bring him back in His infinite mercy, peacefully.
“The Paikonkore Road is under the Gwagwalada Area Council. We also want to appreciate the Honourable Minister for having said and done. He has said it and he has done it.
“Least I forget, the Abattoir Road. He has assured us of putting it in place before the rainy season by the grace of God, and we are praying that God will give him the wisdom and the financial strength to be able to do that. So that within now, let’s say April, May, when the rain will start, that road would be put in place. Because now they have a problem. They don’t have potable pipe-bound water because their pipes have been obstructed by the gradient of the road.
“And secondly, you can’t sleep in most of the houses because of dust. So this, we are appreciating that by the time he is able to put up that road, it is a plus to this palace and the people of Gwagwalada Metropolitans.”
Meanwhile, a resident of Gwagwalada, a shop owner along Market Road who deals in travelling and school bags, Ode Necodemos, told newsmen that the road was used for politics by previous administrations until Wike came on board.
He said, “It was very, very bad. Even it was not even trekkable, how much more can cars follow it? And it was too dusty. Now that we are seeing it, we thank God very, very much for the person that did this for us. Because they have been using this road to do campaigns, telling us to vote for them before we sleep and wake up, we see the road done, and nothing was done for years, not even one year.
“For years, a couple of years, we have been suffering from this road. Today we are enjoying it. We thank God for it and we pray that God will bless the person that did it for us. We thank God for everything. Everything has changed. Now we are seeing customers coming.”
Another shop owner along Market Road, Charles Eyo, an interior designer, told newsmen: “Over four years I’ve been paying rent without making anything here. In fact, to a point that you know I stopped coming to the shop again. This road killed business, but the business now is coming back to life. It’s going back to life so we thank God for everything.
“I don’t know how to express my mind to Mr Minister but for what he has done, for God to use him and give us a good road and to improve our business, I’m so happy and I just pray that the good Lord will keep blessing him and upholding Nigeria at large.”
Earlier, Ebere Owhonda, the Executive Director of Okmass Nigeria Limited, the contractor handling the Gwagwalada Market – Aguma Palace – Radio Nigeria road project, disclosed that the company has kept the FCT minister’s directive to involve the locals and promised to deliver before the October 2025 date.
He said: “There are people who are doing both the drainage work, the excavation, and the security work. Most of all the manual works are people from the community within. It’s a way of empowering them, giving back to them. That’s what we are doing.
“I cannot specifically say, but all I know is that all the labour was done by them. For now, we can say not less than 30 or 40 of them are working here. All the labour, all the manual, except the machine that is doing the work. But every other work is done by people within. Security, cleaning, everything we employ from them.
“We gave the minister October, but we believe that before October we should be able to hand over this project for commissioning. I would say we have done 40 percent, because we just started in November. We have done 30 percent, but we believe by the end of this January, we should be able to do 50 percent, and we believe in the next three, four months, we should be able to complete all the work.”
READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE