- Assembly to audit LGs
Chinelo Obogo with agency report
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has directed that the completed portion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, from Eric Moore to Okokomaiko, be opened to traffic.
The governor also directed the Public Works Corporation to intensify palliative works on the road from Okokomaiko to Badagry.
Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, in a statement, yesterday, said the governor was touched by the discomfort being experienced by the motoring public plying that axis, and has vowed to continue to intensify necessary steps to ameliorate their sufferings.
Addressing the issue of harassment raised by the residents, Akinsanya said security and traffic agencies have been directed to enforce traffic laws by dislodging traders and hawkers from the roadside and arrest any law enforcement officer caught extorting money from motorists.
Akinsanya said the governor has further directed that the same palliative works being carried out by the Public Works Corporation be intensified along the Ajah-Badore corridor and other heavy traffic routes, to give relief to motorists and road users across the state.
Speaking further, he said the 60km Lagos-Badagry Expressway project being executed by the government has two major intermodal transport schemes, namely, the Lagos-Badagry Expressway and the Light Rail Mass Transit, with their accompanying infrastructure – 10 lanes superhighway, taking off from Eric Moore interchange and traverses westward, through Orile Iganmu, Alaba Oro, Mile 2, FESTAC, Agboju, Iyana Iba, Okokomaiko, Iyana Ira, Ijanikin, Agbara, Ibereko and terminating at Badagry.
“It has four dedicated toll lanes, four service lanes, two BRT lanes, 23 BRT online bus stations and seven toll link interchanges, seven bridges and 16 flyovers,” Akinsanya said.
He said for ease of funding and construction, the 60km length project was originally divided into three lots, Eric Moore to Mile 2, Mile 2 to Okokomaiko and Okokomaiko to Seme-Badagry.
Akinsanya said the section of the project which is from Okokomaiko to Seme-Badagry is being proposed for Private Public Partnership, due to the magnitude of the infrastructure to be put in place and the humongous amount of financial resources, running into hundreds of billions of naira, which the State government cannot muster presently, due to other vital competing demands.
The Lagos Badagry Expressway was constructed by the federal government in 1977 as a highway to inter-connect all the ECOWAS Countries, and it is in recognition of its importance as a trade route, and to further boost the development of the Badagry axis, that the Lagos State Government took it upon itself to embark on the project.
Meanwhile, Lagos State House of Assembly has concluded plans to audit the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) in the state and carry out an assessment of their expenditure and performance.
The decision was made yesterday during plenary after a motion was moved by Moshood Oshun, who proposed that the one-year tenure of the chairmen and councillors of the local governments and LCDAs be assessed. He said it is important to assess the councils to see if they conform to the administrative guidelines.
“The local governments are expected to assist in the development of the state. It is important to evaluate how they have impacted on the state and for the committee of the House to assess them. The House must look at the capital and recurrent expenditures of the local councils and see if they are in tandem with the administrative guidelines,” Oshun said.
