We’ll Soon Clear Apapa Gridlock, Says Sanwo-Olu

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

By Rotimi Fadeyi

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Lagos state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that the gridlock on Apapa road would soon be a thing of the past.

According to him, his government was doing everything possible to ensure that motorists and commuters do not continue to experience hardship on the road.

The governor spoke with State House Correspondents after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.

On the Lagos-Badagry expressway which has been a death trap, the governor said; “I was on that road two days after I was sworn-in precisely and we’ve gone round. I’ve been there twice now in about two weeks. So the commitment we got was that the contractors would move into site before the end of this month and I am still relaying that in the month of June, we should be closing out the discussions with the contractor over the weekend early next week.”

“We are hoping that barring any unforeseen circumstance, they should be moving-in in another two to three weeks time. Meaning that the cleanup and the construction of the Badagry expressway return in back in earnest.

On his plans on the ongoing Apapa gridlock clearing, he said, “interestingly some media houses are have actually counting down on me. They said that I mentioned during the campaign train that I was going to clear it in 60 days.”

“I have mentioned it before, what I said was that in 60 days we would review what was done but that does not take the fact that even if people give you dateline, it’s because they want you to do well and they want you to be able to be accountable for those datelines.”, he stated

“It is one of the things I thanked Mr President for. What was done was that the federal government has set up a task force. It’s a multifaceted challenge – there is different stakeholders that are involved in one way or the other-as operators, observers, practitioners and stakeholders in the entire Apapa gridlock and most of them are federal agencies in one form or the other. But it is we the citizens of Lagos state that are bearing the entire burden.”

“The real construction of the road has started, but it’s not at the stage in which we can feel the full impact of it. That’s on one side. The movement of the tanker drivers has also started”

“There is a pond terminal that has been created with NPA and other terminal operators which I imagined have started doing what we call the call-up system. What I understand by the call up is that it’s a system that need to be a bit more electronically driven. I think it’s currently run manually now but if we can get a software that can enhance it and enforce it, the call-up system can become something that can hold the tanker drivers accountable.”

“If you’re not call on to come unto the port you are not meant to come. But beyond that, is to look at the entire value chain – who are the users and who are the operators in that space.”, he added