The Ogun State Government has said the reconstruction of the Sango-Ota road on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway would be completed by December.
The government however refuted the allegation that its newly approved road project was to seek the people’s votes for the second-term ambition of the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun.
The state government said the State Executive Council had on Monday approved the reconstruction of 32km Ijoko/Sango/Agbado road.
The government said the 32km road included Alagbole, Akute-Agbado crossing.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Waheed Odusile, and his counterpart in the ministry of works and infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, said the new road approval was prioritised due to the deplorable condition of the road and challenges confronting motorists.
Akinsanya said contractors have already been mobilised to site.
He said the construction of the road which connects Sango-Ijoko-Agbado-Akute-Alagbole and Yakoyo ends of Ojodu Berger of Lagos started in 2013 under Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s administration but the administration failed to complete it.
He added that the Mowe-Ofada Road, awarded in 2014 by past government and abandoned, would be reconstructed and expanded with drainage system.
Akinsanya said work will commence simultaneously on the 7.5km Singer to tollgate due to its deplorable condition and difficulty for motorists to ply.
He added that the 7.7km Toll Gate to Singer will be sectional rehabilitation while palliative will be done on other sections of the road to Brewery in Abeokuta.
Akinsanya explained that initial work will be done on the 8.5km Sango end and 1.5km on Lagos/Ogun end.
He said, “The road projects on the Lagos-Abeokuta road will be completed by December. We are taking it phase by phase. Others will be done .”
In his remarks, Odusile said the government decided to take up the road projects since the federal government refused to come to the rescue.
He added that, despite the dwindling income from the Federation Account Allocation Committee which he said affected the current administration’s physical projects, Governor Abiodun’s administration had continued to improve on the state’s Internally Generated Revenue.
He said, “The dwindling FAAC is taking a toll on our administration. Without inflicting pain on our people we have been increasing our target to N100bn.
“We are expecting FG’s reaction on Singer/ Tollgate. So, we are not waiting if help is not coming from Abuja, we have to help ourselves.
“The road we are focusing on now are FG roads that we have made efforts in the past to fix. More than four times, Dapo went to Abuja with the Minister of Works. It is not about second term, we have been doing roads.
“What government has been doing is to use FAAC to take care of salaries and recurrent expenditures and dedicate our IGR to capital expenditures.”
