Sanwo-Olu implores FG to fund Lagos-Badagry expressway, others

Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Works and Infrastructure, Mrs. Aramide Adeyoye (left); members of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, Ganiyu Johnson, Olanrewaju Edun and Abubakar Kabir Abubakar; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Bello Kaoje; Olubukola Oyewo and others during the lawmakers’ visit to the governor at Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja…yesterday.

Urges speedy completion of Lagos-Ibadan road
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, implored Federal Government to provide adequate funding for the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

Sanwo-Olu, who said the state government had taken a leap to start a 10-lane highway on the international gateway and had done almost 18 kilometers of the road, appealed to the Federal Ministry of Works to push it further and take it to Badagry.

The governor also urged the Federal Government to speed up the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

He made the calls while receiving the House of Representatives Committee on Works led by its chairman, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, during a courtesy visit to the Lagos House, Ikeja, yesterday.

Sanwo-Olu, who commended the lawmakers for coming to Lagos for on-the -spot assessment of the works carried out in the state by the Federal Ministry of Works, said urgent action should be taken to work on the Otedola Bridge area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to prevent regular accidents on the axis.

“We are happy with the level of work that has been done on Apapa-Oshodi Road but we need to go back to do a lot of clean-up. There is still a side road that has not been completed. We know this is a special dispensation, given the Order 8 that has been used, but we can still go back and clean up the areas, especially around the Tin-Can Port and Apapa Port, so that we can free the traffic in all those areas and take it up to Ijora.

“Lagos-Badagry Expressway is one that I am aware of, that doesn’t have sufficient funding. Lagos-Badagry Expressway is an international gateway. We heard that Ghana, Republic of Benin and Togo have done their own; it is trans-West Africa corridor which five countries pass through. But it is only the Nigerian part of it that has not been fully fixed, which is from Seme boarder into Lagos and go straight to the port.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu, while commending the Federal Ministry of Works’ intervention in some of the federal roads in Lagos State, urged Federal Government to speedily consider the failed portions of the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Road and other Class A federal roads that are important in decongesting traffic out of Lagos.

He said: “We are not living everything to Federal Government. We are also taking up the responsibility of trying to build the Fourth Mainland Bridge. We will work and collaborate with Federal Government at some point. It is a 37-kilometer ring road that is going to exit finally on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is audacious but we are looking to use PPP model to be able to build it.”

Speaking earlier, Abubakar said his committee had reached out to the contractor in charge of the Marine and Eko Bridge and they promised that the project would be completed in four weeks’ time.

He said the committee would also work tirelessly toward completion of the Ikorodu-Sagamu Road for the project to be ready before the end of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.