Acting President, Professor Yemi
Osinbajo has granted the Lagos State Government, permission to reconstruct the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road from Oshodi which has been in a bad
state for some years. The state government offered to reconstruct the road
despite the fact that it is a Federal government owned road.
The Secretary to
the State Government, Tunji Bello, disclosed the latest development in a
statement released today. According to the statement, Ambode commends Osinbajo
for granting the request of the state government to do the road. He described
the action of the acting president as his own 50th birthday gift to the state.
“We are very
appreciative of the good gesture of His Excellency, the Acting President for
acceding to our request which is not only very timely but a very heartwarming
one. Posterity will never forget this genuine developmental action”Ambode said
in the statement
Recall that in
March this year, Ambode told the state residents at a function that his
administration had the money and design for the reconstruction of the road
which had become a national disgrace but that the Federal government was
however hesitant in giving the state the approval to reconstruct the road.
This had at the time caused a friction between him and his predecessor,
Babatunde Fashola, who is the current Minister for Power, Works and
Housing.
“The road linking
Oshodi to the International Airport, you would all agree with me is a national
embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this
administration has set out to achieve, we believe strongly that the image that
is exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired and we took it upon
ourselves to appropriate the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should
approve the total reconstruction of the Airport Road from Oshodi to the
International Airport. The State currently has a design of 10 lanes to
come from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that
would drop you towards the Local Airport. The contractor is already set to go
and everything as I said has been completed and we already have the cash, but
alas we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
This is a Federal and not a State road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes
that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these
years past. I just want to appeal to the Federal Ministry of Works, to let
go or reimburse us with whatever it is that they are owing us and even if they
are not willing to pay us now, we have the money to do it. It is a national
disgrace and we would not be part of it. We would like to do it as part of the
celebration of Lagos at 50,” Ambode had said then.
In his response,
Fashola had said that the delay in granting the request of the state government
was because the Memorandum conveying the request of Lagos State which was
already before the Federal Executive Council has not reached completion stage.
“The Federal
Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Ministry has presented the Memorandum
conveying the request of the Lagos State Government to the Federal Executive
Council as was done with a similar request by the Kaduna State Government in
2016. Due to the fact that two of the roads also connect Ogun State, the
Federal Executive Council could not reach an immediate decision on them because
it requested the input of the other State Government affected”.
Osinbajo has
granted the permission and the state will now do the reconstruction of the
road.
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