Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State says that Lagos and Ogun states governments were planning to commercialise three federal roads — Ikorodu-Ogijo-Sagamu, Epe-Ijebu-Ode and the Lagos-Ota-Abeokua roads.
He said Lagos and Ogun states were planning to go into Public Private Partnership for the construction and rehabilitation of the three roads.
The governor said this while speaking with members of the Abeokuta Club during his investiture as an honorary patron by the club, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Governor Abiodun explained that the decision to collect tolls on the three federal roads followed the handing over of the roads to them by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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His words, “I met with my Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and we decided that, as a matter of urgency, we need to take over some roads which include Epe-Ijebu road, Ikorodu-Sagamu road and Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road so as to reduce the population of the people passing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“I and Sanwolu met with the President to hand over those three roads to us. We sat down with the President and explained things to him.
“He told us to put it in writing. We wrote a joint letter which have our two logos on it. We both signed it and I personally handed it over to Mr. President, and few weeks ago, the president handed over the road to us.”
He added, “What we intend to do is to commercialise these roads and turn them to a private-public-partnership and we have people that are awaiting to enter a PPP with us so that they will fund the road. They will toll it and this will allow the people to move from Lagos to Abeokuta with ease.
The Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta was signed in 2001 and today there is a debt of about N26 billion hanging on that road. The servicing of that road is exceeding N1 billion every year and that road would never be completed by any government and it is because of the paucity of fund at the federal level.”
The governor also told members of the Abeokuta Club that his administration would not develop any part of the state at the expense of others.
Earlier in his address, the President of the Club, Tokunbo Odebunmi, urged the new inductees to be law-abiding and be good representatives of Egba anywhere they found themselves.
Also present at the event were the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo; Agura of Gbagura, Oba Sabur Bakre; Secretary to the State Government, Tokunbo Talabi; a business magnate, Chief Olatunde Abudu, and Justice Demola Bakre, among others.
