By Moshood Adebayo
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has accused the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Power of frustrating the reconstruction of the Lagos Airport Road as well as the handover of the Presidential Lodge to the state government.
He said reconstruction of the road project has been provided for in the 2017 budget.
Ambode told newsmen after an inspection tour of three projects; the Berger regeneration, Abule-Egba flyover bridge and the Aboru-Abesan link bridge and road.
He said the state has not been able to commence work because the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, headed by Babatunde Fashola, his predecessor, has refused to give approval.
The governor said his administration has the fund, and the contractor is willing to move to site within the next two weeks, with the hope of completing it within six months.
He said although the ministry is owing Lagos State Government about N51 billion for projects done on behalf of the federal government, the state government would be glad if the money is paid, as it would help speed up the completion of the Lagos Airport Road, when approval is given.
“The road linking Oshodi to the international airport, you would all agree with me, is a national embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this administration has set out to achieve, we believe, strongly, that the image exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired; and we took it upon ourselves to appropriate the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should approve the total reconstruction of the airport road from Oshodi to the international airport,” he said.
Ambode noted that the state currently has “a design of 10 lanes to come from Oshodi to the international airport with interchange and flyover that would drop you towards the local airport. The contractor is already set to go and everything, as I said, has been completed, and we already have the cash; but, alas, we are having challenges with the federal ministry of works and housing. This is a federal and not a state road. The federal ministry of works believes it should do the road, but it has not been able to do it all these years past.” Ambode said if given the approval, his administration was ready to hit the ground running and begin construction of the airport road within two weeks and finish same within a period of six months.
“I just want to remind Lagosians that prior to my becoming governor, the federal ministry of works has been owing Lagos a total of N51 billion as reimbursement for reconstruction that was carried out by the state government on federal roads in the state.”
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