Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun has said bureaucratic bottlenecks are constituting hitches to the reconstruction of the Lagos-Sango-Abeokuta Expressway.
Abiodun made the claim after inspecting the 20-kilometer Agbara-Lusada-Atan road in the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.
Emphasising the importance of the roads not only to the economic wellbeing of the state but that of the nation on the whole, the governor assured that the Agbara-Lusada-Atan road currently under construction would be completed in September.
Recalling the efforts by Ogun and Lagos State governments to take over the reconstruction of the Lagos-Sango Abeokuta Expressway, Abiodun said he and his Lagos State counterpart were frustrated by delays from the federal government, right from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said they had again approached the current federal government under president Bola Tinubu for the transfer of the road to the state, a request that was eventually granted.
He, however, said the state still faces stiff opposition from some federal officials on the transfer, which forced the state government to formally award the contract in May.
“The Lagos-Sango- Abeokuta road is a federal government road and has been in a very bad shape for long. Because of the suffering our people pass through on the road, I and my counterpart in Lagos jointly wrote a letter, using a single letterhead to the Federal Executive Council, seeking for the transfer of that road for us to reconstruct.
“After waiting for a month without reply, we wrote a reminder. That road was not handed over to us until the present federal government came on board. The contract for the road has since been awarded since May this year,” Abiodun said.
On the deplorable condition of the Atan-Lusada-Agbara road, the governor said that before his assumption of office, he met with industrialists in the area and promised to put the road in good shape.
He added that the road was in a terrible condition, leading to trailers and other articulated vehicles falling on their sides, stating that his administration decided not to wait for the federal government before commencing its reconstruction.
The governor said the road, with a width of 10 metres, is being built to standard and on completion, it would revive businesses and the socio-economic development of the area.
