Senate wants toll gates back on federal roads
The senate on Tuesday passed a motion seeking to restore toll gates on all federal roads.
In the motion, Suleiman Nazif, a senator from Bauchi north, who sponsored it, expressed dismay over the state of roads in the country, saying they had become a “national shame and embarrassment”.
He said the re-establishment of toll gates would solve “the nation’s generally dilapidated road networks”.
“Besides revenue generation, the presence of toll gates, which are normally managed by armed security agents, provides a level of safety for road users,” he said.
He, therefore, urged the senate to “constitute an ad-hoc committee to carefully study the toll-gate policy together with other relevant stakeholders on effective and efficient ways to carry out the policy aimed at producing a holistic package to generate adequate funds for road construction and maintenance, and the money realised should be judiciously utilised in order to restore confidence in the masses”.
After a brief debate on the motion, Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, who presided over the session, called for a voice vote, and the senate voted overwhelmingly for it.
Toll gates on federal roads were removed by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2004.
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