Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo debunked reports that he promised to decongest the Oshodi-Apapa expressway within his first 60 days in office, rather his government would carry out a review of previous activities on the road within 60 days
The Governor revealed this after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on plans to develop Lekki and Badagry seaports in order to decongest the Apapa port.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, however, announced that the reconstruction of the stalled Lagos-Badagry Expressway will resume in the next two weeks.
“The road has been an eye sore and a nightmare to the people of Lagos particularly motorists, commuters and residents plying the route.”
Briefing State House correspondents, Sanwo-Olu said: “From time to time, one must also see one’s boss and it is also an honour to have an audience with Mr President.
“Yesterday’s visit is essentially to brief him on the few initiatives that we are planning to do in Lagos and to get his buy-in and his concurrence.
“Our discussion bothered on areas around development of Lagos and collaboration with the Federal Government that requires His Excellency’s approval and support. “That is what I have come to brief him about and it is essentially to improve the quality of life and business devein Lagos.”
Speaking specifically on the state of the Lagos/Badagry road, Sanwo-Olu said: “I was on that road two days after I was sworn-in and we have gone round. I’ve been there twice now in about two weeks.
So, the commitment we got was that the contractors would move into site before the end of this month and I believe that we should be closing out the discussions with the contractor over the weekend.
“We are hoping that barring any unforeseen circumstance, they should move in in another two to three weeks’ time, meaning that the clean-up and the construction of the Badagary expressway returns back in earnest.”
On the decongestion of Oshodi-Apapa expressway, Sanwo-Olu said certain false claims had been circulating in the media that he promised, during the electioneering, that he would decongest the road within his first 60 days in office.
He explained that what he said was to promise that his government would carry out a review of previous activities on the road within 60 days. He said: “Interestingly, some media houses are actually counting down on me.
They said that I mentioned, during the campaign, that I was going to clear it (Oshodi-Apapa expressway) in 60 days. I have mentioned it before, what I said was that, in 60 days, we would review what was done but that does not take the fact that even if people give you dateline, it’s because they want you to do well and they want you to be accountable to those datelines.