- By Halimah Olamide
After about four days of trending online with videos and photos of the very deplorable state of the roads in the state, the Ogun state government on Wednesday said it was ready to fix the roads.
Government said “succour is coming the way of motorists and residents of Ogun State as the Prince Dapo Abiodun-led administration has embarked on massive rehabilitation and reconstruction of many roads across the state.”
A statement made available to the NPO Reports quoted the Commissioner for Works, Engr Ade Akinsanya, as saying that the rehabilitation will be priotised, based on fund availability and the economic viability of those roads.
The commissioner said that 120 roads, spread across the 20 local governments in the State, were submitted by stakeholders.
Engr Akinsanya said the move was in line with the avowed commitment of the Dapo Abiodun-led administration to make Ogun more attractive to both local and foreign investors.
NPO Reported earlier that the state had come under focus among social media users who brought forward bad roads in the state accusing Governor Abiodun of not doing enough to address the issues.
The commissioner noted that to make the exercise have the desired impact on the people, the governor mandated stakeholders, including royal fathers, lawmakers both state and federal, local government chairmen, community leaders, religious leaders, among others to submit critical roads that required immediate attention in their domain.
Engr Akinsanya said rehabilitation works have commenced on some of the roads, while contractors will move to the remaining ones soon.
Engr Akinsanya said Governor Abiodun has also secured the collaboration of the Federal Government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of an additional 14 roads.
He noted that the roads to be jointly rehabilitated with the cooperation of the Federal Ministry of Works, include Laderin-Train Station (Phase 1), (ongoing); Adesanolu road, Mowe (ongoing); Liberty road, Oru Ijebu (ongoing); Babcock road via Ilisan market road; Ayegbami road, Iperu; Safetedo Street, Iperu (ongoing); Odo-Egbe Junction/Ereko/Ondo Road Junction (ongoing); Major Thompson Road, Sagamu (ongoing); Methodist Church, Iperu; Awokoya Street, Ijebu Ode; Kanga Lagos-Ilese road, Lots 1 (ongoing), Lots11, 111 amongst others.
State House of Assembly members had risen on Tuesday calling the attention of the governor to the growing cries by residents on the state of their roads. Though they acknowleged that the government had not relented on rehabilitation of roads in the state.