Senate asks FERMA to urgently fix Lagos-Abeokuta expressway

To reduce the hardship and suffering of Nigerians using the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road, the Senate has requested the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency to urgently rehabilitate the expressway, pending its total reconstruction.

It also asked the ministry to include funding for the reconstruction of the road in the next budget.

This was part of the motion sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola and seven others during plenary on Wednesday.

The motion is titled, “Urgent need for palliative repairs and total reconstruction of Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Express road”.

Adeola expressed worry that over the years, the state of disrepair of major roads in the country had been a cause for concern for many Nigerians.

He said that the vast stretches of the road had totally collapsed.

He said, “The then Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in May 2018 announced a programme of rehabilitation programme of rehabilitation of the Lagos-Abeokuta through an award of a two and half year contract of N22. 3bn to Julius Berger but nothing was done to make any difference till date.”

According to him, the present state of the road is a threat to the operations of the industries along the axis because they will not be able to access raw materials from Lagos seaports.

Senator Tolulope Odebiyi urged the Senate to use its legislative instruments to find funding for the rehabilitation of the road.

He said, “I did explain to the Minister of Works and Housing, His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola and personally met the MD of Julius Berger Nigeria PLC on the road.

“However, due to paucity of funds, the rehabilitation has been delayed. Having said that, I think the motion is very timely because the volume of people that travel on that road is enormous.

“Priority must be given to this road to reduce the hardship and suffering of our people in Ado/Odo Ota Local Government.

“Special funding must be allocated to make sure this road is done to help the economic viability of the road. I urge my colleagues to use our legislative privileges to provide additional funding to urgently rehabilitate the Ota road.”