The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) says the dumping of refuse on highways is responsible for the collapse of some roads in the country.

Mr Kabir Abdullahi, the Managing Director of the agency, made this known in Abuja on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen.

He said the refuse heaps ended up blocking the drainage system and caused extensive flooding of the roads when it rained.

“The situation sometimes gets worse during the rainy season, thereby leading to the total collapse of such roads,” Abdullahi said.

The managing director, who cited a portion of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway by Berger Bus Stop as an example of such roads, said that it had been rehabilitated and was also being maintained by the agency.

He said the agency’s intervention on the road over the years, just like other roads in  the federal network, was to ensure that it was motorable to aid the free flow of traffic.

“The Oshodi-Apapa expressway is an arterial route conveying the bulk of goods to and from the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.

“FERMA’s intervention over the years is to ensure it remains motorable” he said.

Abdullahi said that it was regrettable that in spite of the agency’s efforts to rehabilitate the road, it had deteriorated.

“Our assessment of the reason for the collapse of the road is that many residents and businesses dump their refuse in the drainage and water channels with the assumption that the storm water would clear it.

“ This refuse end up blocking the drainage and causing extensive flooding on the road, a situation that gets worse during the rainy season,” Abdullahi said.

He urged members of the public and business outfits to desist from throwing refuse and other solid wastes on the highways in order to elongate the life span of the roads.

According to him, the agency has been carrying out public enlightenment campaigns on the need to stop such practices.”

Abdullahi assured Nigerians that the agency would continue to maintain all federal roads across the country irrespective of their locations.