The Ogun State Government has hinted on plans to take over the reconstruction and rehabilitation of some major Federal Government roads within the state.
This was disclosed by the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, who briefed State House journalists after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa on Thursday.
According to the governor, the move is in conjunction with the Lagos State Government.
While listing the impact his administration has made in its first year in office, Mr Abiodun said that Ogun State remains a gateway to Lagos and the rest of the country.
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He stressed that it is important for his administration to focus on providing key infrastructure across the state, in order to boost business confidence and industrialisation.
“We see ourselves as the expansion corridor for Lagos and it requires that we provide the right infrastructure to allow people to come between Lagos and our state and to go back.
“In our first one year, we have intervened in almost 90km of roads, out of which 22km has been completed and they are ongoing. We are now going to the next phase – these are internal and border roads.”
The governor said he also came to inform President Buhari on the challenges facing the state, one of which is the deplorable condition of the two major roads, which he said is the only link to Nigeria’s biggest industrial hub, the Agbara Industrial Estate.
He stressed that the situation with the Agbara-Atan road has become a major threat to investors and multinationals in the state.
“Our biggest industrial hub in this country is the Agbara Industrial Estate; there is a road that goes from Agbara to Lusada and to Atan, that road leads the estate and it is in such deplorable state that trailers coming from the port to the industrial estate and back, continue to have accidents and delays, to the point where some of the multinationals are threatening to leave the country.
“We have decided to intervene in this road as a state and we want the President to know that we are going to construct this road at our expense and inform the Federal Ministry of works that we will be making the demand for a refund of the construction of that road,” he stated.
Stressing further, governor Abiodun said the plan for the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road, is for Ogun and Lagos States to collaborate to rebuild the road and commercialise it, noting it would be impossible for the Federal Government to attend to all the roads under its control at the same time.
“Lagos, Ota and Abeokuta road is the second busiest road in the country, and as a state government with Lagos, we have asked Mr President to transfer the road to us and we will commercialise it.”
He, however, noted that President Buhari was pleased with the discussion and has promised to give the necessary support to see the economic growth of the region.
The governor also revealed that 1870 houses will be built across three senatorial districts as part of efforts to sustain the economic development in the state.
