Fashola: Why we’ve not completed Lagos-Ibadan expressway

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, says the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is suffering delay because of the drainage channel being constructed across the road by the Oyo State Government in the Ibadan axis.

Fashola disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at the inaugural edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration Scorecard 2015-2023 Series organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture.

The minister said the 127.6km Lagos-Ibadan expressway has recorded a lot of progress and appealed to motorists and commuters to endure the delay being encountered at the Ibadan and Lagos axis.

“The Oyo State Government is building a drainage channel across the road, so we are having difficulties because the contractor has slowed down and we have to slow down too.

“We do not want to finish the road and come back to destroy it for the drainage channel construction.

“On the Lagos axis, we are working on the last six kilometres into Lagos; that is a very highly densely populated area.

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“We left it for the last because we knew it to be the most difficult.

“We are appealing that you bear with us and we are hoping that very soon there will be relief there,” he said.

Fashola added that the two axis were the last finishing touches to the completion of the project and it would be delivered soon.

Speaking on Bodo-Bonny Island road project in Rivers State, the minister said for centuries, the island had not been accessible by road until Buhari’s administration.

He said: “This is the island where the famous King Jaja of Opobo used to dominate, centuries ago.

“Bonny Island is one of the places where very vast resources are produced into the economy of Nigeria in terms of natural gas.

“For the first time, this government is building a road and jetties of 39 kilometers combined into the island.”

Fashola assured timely completion of the project, which he said would offer neighboring communities reliable access to Bodo town, improve socio-economic connectivity and commerce in the area.

Bodo-Bonny road will be the first to connect oil-rich Bonny Island to mainland Rivers State, a major landmark in the region’s history.

“The construction of this road, runs through most difficult of terrains and other challenging environmental factors like a 7km low-lying marshy land with tidal movements,” he added.

The Star