Oyo Govt faults Fashola’s allegation of being responsible for non-completion of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

The Oyo State government has faulted the allegation by the Federal Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) accusing Governor Makinde-led administration of being responsible for the non-completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway within a record time.

The government in a statement alleged Fashola of not being factual in his statement, arguing that Fashola should have admitted the ineptitude of the Federal Government in project delivery instead of shifting the blame

The Governor Makinde-led administration had a track record of good governance and will never play politics with the development of the state.

The statement added that the ongoing construction works of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway interfaced with the dualisation of the 8.2 km Agodi-Gate-Old Ife-Adegbayi Junction road and a few other World Bank-assisted Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP).

It stated that the government is working tirelessly at ensuring the completion of the 8.2km interface project within a record time.

It added that the interface project should not be given as an excuse for the Federal government to complete its own project that it started many years back.

According to the statement, there was supposed to be synergy between the two tiers of government on this project but this is not so.

It was stated that if the Federal government is sincere with the date fixed for delivery of the project, nothing stop her from reaching out to the government to find out the time for the completion of the interface project.

In its efforts to put the record straight, the government submitted, “We would have expected that the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing would have reached out to us to find out how long we would need to complete the aforementioned projects, being that Oyo State has been in communication with the Ministry. 

“In fact, just about a year ago, we requested permission from the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (through the Director of Federal Highways) to dualize the underpass at CH 115 -117. We were advised to make sure that the diversion routes are completed before embarking on the diversion. We complied 100%. 

“It is on record that the majority of the 22km stretch of the Lagos -Ibadan Express Road between the old Tollgate Ibadan – Ojoo is still a work in progress. Earthwork between Iwo Road Interchange and Ojoo has only just commenced. While work between the Old Ibadan Tollgate and Onipepeye is still in progress and characterised by road diversions. With all this work yet to be done, why is the Federal Minister blaming the Oyo State Government for delaying the project?

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“Had the Federal Minister reached out to the Oyo State Government, we would have told him that although the contract for work on the dualization of Agodi-Gate- Old-Ife Road – Adegbayi Junction which includes an underpass interface with the Lagos Ibadan Expressway at Onipepeye had to be terminated at 60% in September 2022 due to slow pace of work by the contractor, whose contract was awarded under the previous administration, the Oyo State Government is in the process of re-awarding the remaining 40%  with a February 2023 delivery date. We have also provided 500m diversions of the main expressway lanes from the impacted site to allow traffic flow on both sides. Similarly, the IUFMP projects also have 4-month completion schedules.

“Given that the pace of work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been at 10/km per year (it has taken almost 10 years since 2013 for work so far done on the 127.6km stretch of road to be completed), it could take about 2 years to finish the work and get to CH 127.6. Why then will our projects with 4-month remaining be the source of delay of completion of the project? 

“One would also wonder why it was okay to skip the Lagos end of this project between Berger and Old Lagos Tollgate and the about 2 km stretch between Shagamu and Ogere, but it suddenly becomes impossible to skip the less than 3km CH 115-117 and 125 and continue work on the remainder 22km.

“From all of the above, it is clear that Federal Minister did not have the right  facts right in ascribing blame for non-completion of the Lagos Ibadan Express Road to the Oyo State Government. Even after the less than 3km CH 115-117 and 125 is completed in February 2023, we doubt if the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project would be anywhere near completion to CH127.6.”