Nigerian Senate Asks Buhari to reintroduce toll gates

                             

Alarmed at the fright­ening level of decay witnessed on the na­tion’s highways, the Nigeri­an Senate on Wednesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reintroduce toll gates to enable government rehabilitate the roads.

It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo abolished toll gate fees collection on the nation’s highways about 12 years ago.

Obasanjo, who said that toll gates had outlived its usefulness, had on December 30, 2003 dis­banded them across the country with effect from January 1st, 2004.

He pointed out that the scheme was imposing un­necessary financial bur­den on the federal govern­ment and Nigerians who were also overburdened by other demands.

Consequently, the up­per chamber yesterday mandated its Commit­tee on Works 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 funds for roads mainte­nance.

In December 2015, the Senate passed a motion calling on President Mu­hammadu Buhari to rein­troduce toll gates across the country in order to reduce the burdens on the roads. After waiting for ten months without any re­sponse from the President in respect of their demand, the red chamber renewed its move yesterday when it passed the resolution.

The resolution was se­quel to a motion moved by Senator Suleiman Nazif on the need for the re-estab­lishment of toll gates on our federal highways.