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●Promises completion in 18 months
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, on Friday started construction of the 70-kilometre Abeokuta-Ifo-Ota-Lagos expressway, pledging to complete it in 18 months.
The governor, who launched the hostilities at Itori in Ewekoro Local Government Area, stressed that the road is important not only for Ogun State, but also for Lagos State and the nation as it is a communication route for people going to the neighbouring country.
It would be recalled that the attempt to reconstruct the road was first conceived in 2019, but all efforts to convince the Federal Government to hand over the road to the Ogun State government had proved futile.
According to the governor, “The plan to rebuild this road did not start today because we have the interest of our people at heart. We know that this is a federal government road and the state had to go through the due process before getting the required approval to begin the reconstruction.
“This road was awarded in 2003, but has since suffered from insufficient funding, resulting in contractors working and often abandoning the road sometimes for a year, when the roads would have deteriorated. Our people have suffered too much travelling on this road, but today hope is renewed.
“I am pleased to inform you that work on the road is starting immediately. The excuse then was that there was a contractor sitting on the road. The best the State could do at that time was to carry out palliative works on the critical sections along the road axis. We reopened our appeal to the Federal Government to reconstruct the road at the inauguration of His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who graciously, through the Honourable Minister of Public Works, handed over the reconstruction of the road to Ogun State.
“I would therefore like to use this medium to express my sincere gratitude to the President of Nigeria, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for granting the request of our State by granting us approval and entrusting us with the Abeokuta/Ifo/Sango/Abule-Egba road for reconstruction.
“My sincere appreciation also goes to the Federal Minister of Public Works, Eng. Dave Umahi, for his support and cooperation in ensuring that our state gets the necessary approval to reconstruct the road,” the governor said.
The governor described the road as the second busiest in the country, after the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
“The Abeokuta/Ifo/Sango road has been rated as the second busiest road in Nigeria and is vital to the economy of the people of Ogun State and Nigerians in general. It links Abeokuta and its hinterland to Lagos State and connects Ilaro in Western Ogun to Sagamu in Eastern Ogun through the Sagamu-Interchange-Papalanto-Ilaro road.
“On the Ota side, it also connects to the Sango-Atan-Owode-Idi-Iroko road, which leads to border towns and Benin Republic. The road serves as a critical artery to several industrial hubs in Ota, including Lafarge Cement Factory, Ile-Ise Awo, various schools and colleges. Communities along this corridor are densely populated and the strategic location of the road has a significant impact on trade and economic activities,” he added.
Abiodun stressed that five construction teams will be involved to complete the project.
“To expedite the reconstruction of the road, five reconstruction teams will be involved and each team will cover one of the following areas: Ota/Ifo, Papalanto, Ewekoro/Itori, Abeokuta and the team assigned to palliative works to ensure smooth traffic flow along the project route during the duration of construction.
“Each zone covers a distance of about 15km. The Abeokuta/Ifo/Sango/Abule-Egba road project is expected to be completed in eighteen months,” Prince Abiodun enumerated.
The construction of the road, the governor stressed, would create jobs for both skilled and unskilled workers through direct and indirect employment of state residents, as well as improve safety along the axis and provide an enabling environment for the operation of factories and businesses in the communities.
Calling on the people to take ownership of the project by partnering with the contractor, Governor Abiodun urged the private sector to partner with the state government in its commitment to socio-economic development, saying his administration would continue to provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate movement across the state.
In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Eng. Ade Akinsanya, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Eng. Lateef Yusuf, said the state government is committed to ensuring the completion of the 70km road, which passes through four local government areas of the state to alleviate the suffering of motorists.
In his goodwill message, the Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, noted that successive administrations in the state have paid no attention to the deplorable condition of the road, but commended the present administration for seeing fit to fix it permanently.
The state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Yemi Sanusi, stressed that the reconstruction of the road is an important dividend of democracy for the people, who have long been clamoring for its repair, calling on road users to use it judiciously.
The representative of the general director of Graneburg, the company that manages the rehabilitation, Eng. Edmond Maalu praised the government for entrusting the project to his company, assuring that it would carry out quality work and asked for the cooperation of the people and traffic management for a smooth operation.
The Olu of Itori, Oba Abdulfatai Akanmo, also said the road has been in bad condition for about 12 years as previous administrations, both at the federal and state levels, failed to upgrade it, thus exposing motorists to unnecessary hardship.
The post Dapo Abiodun breaks 21-year spell, starts work on 70km Abeokuta-Ota-Lagos road appeared first on TheConclaveNg.
