By Onu Okorie

Federal Government has formally broken ground on the dualisation of the Ibadan–Ijebu Ode Road, a 56.5-kilometre corridor linking Oyo and Ogun states that officials say will cut travel times, curb kidnapping along its deteriorated stretches, and unlock agricultural and commercial activity across the wider Lagos-Ogun-Oyo axis.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony held at the Open Field of Legacy Estate, Minister of Works Senator Engr. David Nweze Umahi framed the project as a turning point for a route long plagued by patchwork repairs. He told the gathering that the era of stopgap interventions on the corridor was over, and that the government was building infrastructure meant to last for generations. Umahi went further, describing the dualisation as far more than a construction exercise — calling it a deliberate economic intervention rather than simply an asphalt-laying project.
The contract has been awarded to JRB Construction Limited following approval by the Federal Executive Council. Umahi praised the firm as the country’s leading indigenous contractor, pointing to the scale of earthworks already visible along the corridor, with embankments reportedly filled up to 40 feet in places.
A Cross-State Economic Link
Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the event, characterized the road as a critical economic bridge between the two neighbouring states rather than merely a ribbon-cutting occasion. President Tinubu, in remarks conveyed at the ceremony, said the corridor was too strategically important for his administration to neglect.
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, welcomed the project on behalf of the traditional institution, recalling years of hardship endured by farmers and traders who relied on the deteriorated route, and thanking the president for recognizing the road’s strategic value. He also credited Umahi’s persistence in pushing the administration’s infrastructure agenda forward.
Wider Infrastructure Push
Umahi used the occasion to preview upcoming stops on his infrastructure tour. He said he would travel next to the Benin–Agbor–Asaba Road, where a concessionaire had reportedly stripped more than 30 kilometres of asphalt and abandoned the site, leaving road users to bear the consequences. The minister said his ministry would engage the concessionaire, an independent engineer, and the Edo State government to resolve the impasse.
He also disclosed that the Minister of State for Works, Bello Goronyo, would inspect the Ifaki–Kabba Road spanning Ekiti and Kogi states — a project the president had flagged as urgent as far back as 2024 — and report back on a redesign following the visit.
Umahi closed his remarks by crediting President Tinubu with an unprecedented scale of road construction nationwide, arguing that no part of the country had been left out of the current infrastructure drive. The ceremony concluded with Governor Abiodun performing the official ground-breaking on the president’s behalf.