Ndume: North-east Will Reward Tinubu With Votes for Gombe-Biu Highway Project

By Eshioromeh Sebastian

Senator Ali Ndume, Senator representing Borno South, has said that the people of the North-East will reward President Bola Tinubu with their votes in the 2027 elections following the approval and flag-off of the Gombe-Biu highway reconstruction project.

The federal government flagged off the reconstruction and dualisation of the 125-kilometre Gombe-Biu section of the corridor on Thursday, at a cost of N1.245 trillion.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Ndume expressed confidence that the region would show its appreciation at the polls.

“I am sure that the people of the North East will appreciate this gesture of Mr. President and reward him with their votes in the forthcoming general elections,” Ndume said.

The lawmaker recalled that he had consistently advocated for the rehabilitation of the road under successive administrations. He said he raised concerns about the condition of the highway during a high-level engagement with Babatunde Fashola, former minister of works and housing, in 2019, emphasising its strategic significance to economic integration, inter-state mobility, security operations, and regional development within the North-East subregion.

He added that he renewed the call in July 2021 during discussions on national infrastructure financing frameworks, including projects tied to African Development Bank-supported facilities.

Ndume said a letter he wrote to David Umahi, minister of works, on February 11, 2026, contributed to the eventual approval of the project. In the letter, he drew attention to the exclusion of the Biu/Damboa/Maiduguri corridor from the 2026 Budget Four Legacy Projects.

“It is heart warming to note that my interaction with the present Minister of Works, Engineer Dave Umahi … finally paid off as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) eventually approved the Biu–Gombe Road project under the federal tax credit and infrastructure intervention framework,” he said.

“The project was subsequently captured among strategic national road interventions financed through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) tax liabilities arrangement.”

Ndume described the highway as a strategic economic and social corridor linking the north-east to other parts of Nigeria and neighbouring countries. He then appealed to Tinubu to extend the road beyond Biu.

“Like Oliver Twist, we want to appeal to President Tinubu to extend the road network not only to Biu, but to Maiduguri and up to Monguno and Ngala and then down to Yola,” he said.

“Those are very critical roads that go down to the border that will also promote inter-country trade and also help in the fight against insurgency because they always take advantage of the bad road to block people and kidnap travelers on that road.”

The flag-off ceremony was held on Thursday in Liji, Gombe State. Attendees included Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Minister of Works David Umahi, and the Managing Director of Hi-Tech Construction Company, Danny Abboud.