The Kwara State House of Assembly has called for urgent measures for the safety of citizens on some major bridges across the state in the wake of flood disasters which claimed lives and destroyed properties in the state.
Raising a matter of general public importance at the plenary on Wednesday, Jimoh Ali Yusuf, stressed the need to expand the Ilorin Abbatoir bridge and provide steel barricades on both sides of the bridge as well as others that lack such facilities across the state.
Ali also drew the attention of the House to the need to expand and reconstruct some bridges and culverts in different parts of the state and install steel handrails on the bridges without the facility.
He observed that some bridges could no longer cope with the volume of water flowing through the rivers on which they were constructed especially during rainy seasons.
Ali specifically mentioned the bridges on Sobi Road in Akanlanbi near the sawmill and another at Abbatoir where a notable Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Abdulganiyu Aboto Al- Adabby and others lost their lives to a mishap occasioned by flooding.
He said if steel handrails existed on the two sides of the bridge the disaster would probably have been averted despite the flood.
In its resolution, the House urged Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to direct the Ministry of Works and Transport to set machinery in motion for the expansion of the Abbatoir bridge.
The House also asked the Governor, to direct the Ministry of Works and Transport to, urgently install road signs and steel handrails on both sides of the Akanlambi, Abbatoir and other bridges that currently lack the facility in the state.
The legislature, commiserated with the families of the victims of flood disasters in different parts of the state.
It called on Kwarans to be safety conscious by taking all necessary precautions to safeguard lives and property, especially during the rainy season.