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Lagos Assembly asks FG to refund N51b spent on roads

By Wole Oyebade
16 September 2015   |   3:26 am
Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday urged the Federal Government to reimburse the state government a backlog of funds spent to rehabilitate Federal roads in the state.
Lagos Assembly PHOTO:leadership.ng

Lagos Assembly PHOTO:leadership.ng

Seeks probe of FERMA
Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday urged the Federal Government to reimburse the state government a backlog of funds spent to rehabilitate Federal roads in the state.

The Guardian gathered that the debt, incurred in the last eight years to rehabilitate 17 Federal roads, is to the tune of over N51 billion.

The House, at their plenary yesterday, also urged the Federal Government to investigate the activities and funding of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in respect of Lagos Federal roads in the last eight years.

Reading the House of Assembly Motion number 13, Majority Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade, said the FERMA investigation was necessary to uncover why FG owes Lagos, while the agency collects allocation yearly to fix the roads.

It would be recalled that the former governor of the State, Babatunde Fashola had during the election campaigns harped that the FG owes Lagos N51b over road maintenance projects.

According to the motion: “The House call on the governor of the state, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode to demand the reimbursement of funds from the Federal Government of Nigeria of all the funds expended by Lagos State on Federal roads that were yet to be refunded to the state.

“We call on the President Muhammadu Buhari, to call for urgent investigation into the activities and funding of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in Lagos State in the last eight years,” the motion read in part.

Debating the motion prior to its passage, the lawmakers were also unanimous that it was high time the Lagos Caucus in the Senate and their counterparts in the House of Representatives had begun the push for special status for Lagos — both as a former capital territory and economic nerve centre of the country.

The House also called on the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget to grant more leverage, through appropriation in the 2016 fiscal year to the Lagos State Public Works Corporation to enable it fulfill its responsibility of road maintenance in the state.

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