Lagos-ibadan expressway will be ready by June 30 and will be commissioned by Tinubu–Fashola
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday, said the incoming administration of Senator Bola Tinubu will commission the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
He disclosed this during an extraordinary Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the chamber in the State House, Abuja.
According to the minister, the planned date for the commissioning of the crucial public asset is June 30.
“There is a critical section in the four-kilometre last mile to Lagos. It is technical but what has delayed it is that we found black cutting soil under the pavement,” he stated.
“We have decided that we will remove it and replace it so that we do a proper job instead of being in a hurry to commission it. That will be deferred to the next administration and the expected completion date is the 30th of June.”
Thereafter, Fashola invited President Buhari to virtually commission some projects embarked upon by his ministry across the country.
They include the Dr Goodluck Jonathan Federal Secretariat in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State; the Ebele Okeke Federal Secretariat in Awka, Anambra State; and Malam Yahaya Gusau Federal Secretariat in Gusau, Zamfara State.
Others are the Loko-Oweto Bridge linking Nasarawa and Benue States, the Ikom Bridge in Cross River State while the Road project is the completed section of the over 200 kilometres of the Kano-Kaduna Dual Carriage Expressway
The minister also explained that the newly commissioned Second Niger Bridge has been named after President Buhari.
But motorists and users of Lagos-ibadan expressway are faulting Fashola claim that the road will be ready by June 30 this year. This is predicated on the fact on ground and quantum of work yet to be completed on the road particularly from Kara/New garage to 7up area of Lagos. The least expected date of completion according to them will be towards the end of September.
Currently the gridlock caused by this reconstruction work that has spanned about eight years makes motorists to commute from Mowe to Secretariat about two to three hours.
Same thing inward Ibadan where it takes longer number of hours to commute from Alapere to Mowe and this is on a daily basis.
The unending reconstruction work on Lagos-ibadan expressway has terminated several lives untimely and inflicted terminal illness to many.
It has also dislocated and disintegrated many families because of the terrific traffic on the road.
Many vehicles have been damaged and marked off road as a result of the road reconstruction which has brought untold hardship to residents, communities, motorists and anybody that has anything to do with that economic and all important route called Lagos-ibadan expressway.
Completion of Lagos-ibadan expressway has suffered nothing less than eight postponements since the project started in 2016.
The latest was in the month of April when Lai Mohammed, minister of information vowed after a federal executive council meeting that the road will be delivered on April 30th, 2023.
Speaking in the same vein minister of works Babatunde Fashola appearing on channels television stated categorically that president Buhari will commission the road on April 30th, 2023. That date has come and gone and Lagos-ibadan expressway is yet to be completed.
