The Federal Government has asked the 14 states participating in the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project projects to do diligent background checks on companies before contracting them for rural road works.

The RAAMP is a project between the states and the Federal Government on one hand, and the World Bank and French Development Agency on the other, designed to rehabilitate and maintain rural roads and cause modernity to select markets for the purpose of returning prosperity to farmers.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day ‘project implementation strategic action plan’ event in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on Thursday, the National Project Coordinator, Aminu Mohammed, said, “I am elated Ogun State is ready to go.

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He said, “The infrastructural development I see on the ground is a pointer to the fact that you will deliver on this project. In fact, except you want to ask for additional funding, no state can upstage you.

“I need to sound a note of caution that some states are waiting in the wings to be part of this project. Any state that does not do due diligence in contracting contractors could be supplanted for willing states.”

Mohammed, who lauded the performance of Niger State in the previous related projects, added that sustaining the maintenance of the roads after project life would stand the current project out.