IBBI Bridge: Inside the Taraba Abandoned Project That Left Nigerians Asunder

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By Abdulbasid Dantsoho

On the edge of the IBBI River in Taraba State, a stretch of concrete pillars juts into space, which signals that a vital link was meant to begin. The bridge, conceived as a strategic means to connect parts of the North West and North Central to parts of the North East, and extend access toward the South East and South-South, now stands as a monument to a promise unfulfilled.

Vehicles crossing the River have to use wooden boats for a fee, as Nigerians ply the road daily to eke out a living. What should have eased movement, trade, and integration across regions instead leaves communities divided.

For the villages scattered along this corridor, the cost of that failure is a daily lived reality. Farmers who once expected seamless routes to transport produce to distant markets remain trapped behind poor road access and unreliable crossings.

During the rainy season, the river swells, cutting off entire communities and pushing already vulnerable households further from healthcare, schools, and economic opportunities. 

Ibbi LGA is a key area for business and transportation, easily connecting Taraba State to North-Central and Southeastern Nigeria, making it a strategic route.

The route makes it apt for conveying agricultural produce from remote areas in the state to markets in Kano in the Northwest, through Bauchi in the Northeast, as well as to towns and cities in North-central and southern Nigeria.

Ibbi, through River Benue, borders Plateau state to the north, Nasarawa state to the west, and Benue state to the south. However, it has never had a bridge running on its banks.

For over 6 decades since colonial rule, travelers have had to take boats to cross to Ibbi, then to Wukari, another strategic local government, to reach Jalingo, the state capital.

Tragedy, though, is never far from the water’s edge. Boat accidents on Nigeria’s second-largest river have claimed several lives over the years, and with every loss, the community’s cry for a bridge and the safety it promises has only grown louder.

A Dream Arrives by River, Then Quietly Disappears

Adamu Ibrahim has spent more than half his life on this river. At 53, with twenty years of ferrying people and goods across its restless currents, he has learned to read the water the way others read a familiar face. But nothing on that river moved him quite like the morning the crane arrived.

He still remembers it clearly: in August 2018, the slow, heavy barge carrying the construction crane rounded the bend, signaling that the bridge was no longer just a promise. It was the beginning.

“Almost everyone in Ibbi LGA came out jubilating for this massive development,” he recalled, a faint smile crossing his weathered face. “Elders praying and thanking God for his intervention, while children jumping in excitement”. “There were prayers everywhere. We felt like God had finally remembered us.”

Adamu believed the government’s word that the bridge would be standing before 2023. He had no reason not to.

Then came the 2023 elections, the transition of power, and President Tinubu’s assurance that every project started under the previous administration would be seen to completion. For Adamu, it was enough. His faith, briefly shaken, found its footing again.

But the river, as Adamu knows well, does not lie, and neither does silence. A few months later, he began noticing something unsettling from his boat.

The contractors were leaving. Not all at once, but gradually, equipment rolling out of the site, one machine at a time, none of them returning. The activity that had once buzzed along the riverbank grew quieter, then quieter still, until one day, it stopped altogether.

However, not all the equipment was packed; some of the tools are still standing at the construction site. This alone still gives Adamu a weak belief in the continuity of the construction.

One morning, in September 2022, as Adamu ferried across the river and later came settling at the bank, he began hearing the whispers from people and travellers that a boat carrying passengers from Ibbi heading to Benue had a mishap, claiming 10 lives, including a pregnant woman and 15 others missing.
“Boats do capsize here, but not regularly causing deaths. Most times, goods are missing as they sink deep in the river”.

On 13 November 2023, a similar boat mishap on the river claimed 20 lives, who were mostly fishermen from Ibbi.

Similarly, another boat mishap on the River Benue claimed the lives of 20 passengers onboard a boat to Karim Lamido Lga along Mayo-Ranewo of Taraba state on the 28 of October 2023. The boat, carrying at least 104 passengers, hit a barricade installed by fishermen on the waterways.

A Journey too distant

Bappa Bello has spent the better part of his forty years on these roads, shuttling passengers from Taraba to destinations as far as Kano, Bauchi, Abuja, and occasionally Sokoto. He knows every bend, every bottleneck, and he has learned, trip by trip, exactly what the missing bridge has cost him.

Without it, drivers like Bappa are left with two grim choices: brave a river crossing by boat, or swallow the extra hours of rerouting through Jalingo for northern destinations, or along the Wukari-Benue road for north-central and southern ones.

“During the rainy season, we can cross the river in 40 minutes or less,” he said. “But in the dry season, when the water level drops, it takes one to two hours just to get across. Multiply that across daily trips, and the toll in fuel, in time, in earnings quietly bled away is worrisome.”

But the hours lost are only part of the burden. Every crossing by barge comes with a fee, and every submersion a risk no driver can fully rule out on these waters comes with a bill that can wipe out days of earnings at once.

“For crossing on a barge, we pay around N23,000,” Bappa said. “ And when a vehicle goes under, we spend more than N100,000 on recovery”. He paused, then added with a dry, tired laugh, “It feels like we are sharing our profits with the barge riders and the river itself.”

Paid but left undelivered

A WikkiTimes analysis of payment records shows that a total of four billion naira (N4bn) has been disbursed for the construction, yet the project remains barely started.

Data obtained from Nigeria’s Open Treasury Portal and GovSpend indicate that the Federal Ministry of Works made multiple payments to Reynolds Construction Company (Nigeria) Limited between 2021 and 2024 for the bridge project.

The records show that on 17 September 2021, the ministry paid N313.33 million to the contractor, followed by another N179.05 million on 11 October 2021.

Despite the limited progress recorded on the project, further payments were made in 2024. On 4 March 2024, the contractor received N319.83 million and N802.26 million. Additional disbursements of N802.26 million and N319.83 million were made on 19 March 2024.

In total, more than N4 billion has been released for the project during the period under review.

However, a visit to the site shows that construction has stalled, with only concrete pillars standing across the river.

The access road to the project reflects similar neglect, with a dusty, difficult site during the dry season and a muddy, nearly impassable one when it rains, highlighting the wide gap between public spending and what is on the ground.

WikkiTimes submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Federal Ministry of Works on 29 January 2026, seeking details on the project’s status, the scope of work completed, and the justification for continued payments despite the apparent lack of progress.

As of the time of filing this report, the ministry has not responded, thereby breaching the timelines stipulated under the FOI Act. Add FOI

Efforts to obtain the contractor’s position also yielded no result. WikkiTimes contacted Reynolds Construction Company (Nigeria) Limited for clarification on the project’s current status and the funds received, but the company had yet to respond as of press time.

The silence from both the supervising ministry and the contractor leaves critical questions unanswered about project execution, fund utilization, and accountability.

The deplorable condition of the road and the lack of a bridge keep bringing all development efforts to a halt.

“Taraba state’s only Federal university, situated in Wukari LGA, an hour journey to the River Benue in Ibbi, if the bridge is constructed, will ease the burden of traveling long distances on locals from Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau seeking medical service in tertiary hospitals.

“Because they will leverage the Federal University Wukari’s teaching hospital,” said Sadiq Aminu, a community development advocate, during an interview with Wikkitimes.

“Completing the bridge is not only beneficial to Ibbi or Taraba state, but it is also a benefit to Nigeria at large”.  

For local communities in the neighbouring states, tertiary hospitals are often frustratingly distant and mostly overcrowded. The teaching hospital situated in Wukari, however, a newer, closer, and better-positioned to serve these communities, sits out of reach due to the uncompleted bridge.

Completing the bridge would not only open a major route but also a longed-for corridor.

Analysts argue that neighbouring teaching hospitals, such as Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi and Jos University Teaching Hospital in Plateau, could play a critical role in strengthening the medical capacity of the newly established Federal University Wukari Teaching Hospital, which has a good road network.

They added that the project is also expected to boost medical education and reduce the burden of healthcare access, as the teaching hospitals would be accessible to residents in the corridor who need specialized tertiary medical services.

For communities in Nasarawa and Plateau States that are closer to Taraba, the university’s teaching hospital provides access to quality medical care. But without the bridge, that access remains out of reach.

“If the bridge is constructed, it will ease the burden on locals from Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau states who travel long distances seeking medical services at a tertiary hospital,” said Sadiq Aminu, a community development advocate, in an interview with Wikkitimes.

“Completing the bridge is not only beneficial to Ibbi or Taraba State, but it is also a benefit to Nigeria at large.”

Experts say completing the bridge would not only improve mobility but also strengthen agriculture and economic integration.

Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas has previously expressed concern over the project’s abandonment, noting its implications for flooding and security planning in the area.

For the Ibbi community, the unfinished pillars stand as more than just a failed infrastructure project; they are a pattern of public spending without accountability.

Billions of naira have been released. Lives have been lost on unsafe crossings. Economic opportunities have been stifled. Yet, there is no bridge.

Until those responsible are held accountable and the project is completed, the Ibbi Bridge will remain what it has become: a costly symbol of neglect, where public funds flow freely, but development does not.

This report was produced with support from Civic Media Lab