The National Association of Ogun State Students on Monday appealed to the Federal Government to take urgent steps towards reconstructing the completely collapsed Lagos-Sango Ota-Abeokuta expressway.
The students particularly called on the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, to urgently activate all necessary machinery towards ensuring that his promised Federal Government’s intervention in rehabilitating the expressway materialised.
The National President of NAOSS, Kehinde Thomas, made this call on Monday in a statement made available to journalists in the state.
Thomas said, “This appeal becomes exigent in view of the horrible experience which residents, commuters, as well as other motorists are subjected to daily, especially whenever there is a downpour which usually ends the entire Sango Ota/Idiroko expressway junction till Ali Isiba Bus Stop completely impassable.”
He lamented the harrowing experience which travellers and other pedestrians had to undergo while passing through the completely flooded expressway in the early hours of Monday to their respective offices.
The students’ leader declared that, “The current condition of the expressway is totally unacceptable not only to the Nigerian students who have to return to their respective institutions but also speaks volumes of the insensitivity of the Nigerian government which appeared careless about the welfare of investor whose businesses are located within the Sango Ota axis of the state”.
The students said that the Minister of Works, Umahi had during his working visit to the state in September 2023, assured the state governor, Dapo Abiodun of the readiness of the Tinubu-led administration to rehabilitate the 42-kilometer Lagos-Sango Ota-Abeokuta Expressway completely.
During the visit, they claimed that Umahi had promised a joint reconstruction of the expressway between the federal and Ogun State governments. It has been in a bad state for many years, in line with the Federal Government policy in the Highways Development and Management Initiative.
Thomas said 10 months after, the Minister’s assurance nothing had been done to ease the people’s suffering on the road
He appealed to the Minister to not only remember and respect his words but also match his words with action in the interest of the entire people of the state, particularly the industries in the Ota axis which have to move in their raw materials for production.
Thomas maintained that “a quick federal government’s intervention would also go a long way towards ensuring that owners of industries, whose businesses are near comatose because of the bad condition of road in the axis would not relocate their investments away from the country”.