President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday inaugurated the N16bn Lafia flyover and underpass constructed by the Nasarawa State Government during a one-day working visit to the state.
Tinubu, who arrived at the Usman Dan Fodio Airport, Lafia, around 1:55 pm aboard a Nigerian Air Force jet, was received by Governor Abdullahi Sule and top government officials.
Lafia, the state capital, was adorned with banners, posters, and colours in anticipation of the President’s visit, with students and residents lining major roads to welcome him.
Speaking during the inauguration of the interchange, Tinubu praised Sule for what he described as prudent management of public resources.
“It is a great honour for me to be here, feeling at home, feeling very welcomed and to inaugurate this project.
“I salute the prudent management of resources, commitment of value given by the Governor of our dear state. I therefore commission this project,” Tinubu said.
Sule explained that the flyover and underpass span one kilometre and were completed within a year without external borrowing.
He said, “Your Excellency, this is the first project that you are going to commission for us. It is actually a combination of an underpass and a flyover covering one kilometre, and this road was built within one year because of your reforms.
We have paid the contractor 100 per cent without borrowing one naira. Because of your own reforms, that is why we have been able to do this in a state like Nasarawa.”
Sule, therefore, announced that the name of the completed flyover and underpass is “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Interchange”.
After the inauguration, Tinubu visited the Emir of Lafia’s palace, distributed 60 security vehicles to law enforcement agencies, empowered youths with 50 electric tricycles, and handed out tractors and farm implements to farmers at Lafia Square.
The President also inaugurated the dualised Shendam Road, the new Nasarawa State Secretariat Complex, and attended a town hall meeting at the Aliyu Akwe Doma Banquet Hall.
Sule had earlier disclosed that Tinubu would also inspect a 1MW solar mini-grid and an electric vehicle charging station established by a lithium mining firm operating in the state.
Tinubu was accompanied by the All Progressives Congress National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, and the governors of Niger, Benue, Kwara, Kaduna, Imo, Ogun, and Borno States, among other top dignitaries.
No fewer than five private jets, aside from the President’s aircraft, were reported to have landed at the Lafia airport for the visit.
