Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has advised the Federal Road Maintenance Agency to only lay claims to roads repaired by the agency in Lagos rather than taking credits for those rehabilitated by the state government.
The governor stated this during an interactive section with journalists on Tuesday night at the Lagos House, Marina.
He said he observed that FERMA officials in Lagos had been putting signposts on some roads that were rehabilitated and reconstructed by the state government within the metropolis.
According to him, the agency has been sending reports to the Federal Ministry of Works as some of the projects they carried out in Lagos.
Fashola said, “The Apapa-Oshodi Expressway belongs to the Federal Government, the Apapa port belongs to the Federal Government, but the city road inside the GRA belongs to us and we have awarded contracts on six to seven roads in the area.
“We have done the phase one and the phase two is about commencing. After we finished the first phase, we discovered that tankers were leaving the port to park on the roads built for residents. This was a failure of supervision and management by the agencies of the Federal Government. The matter has not been resolved.
“FERMA is now putting signposts on areas and roads where we have worked, deceiving its employer in Abuja that it is working. I have taken photographs of the area and sent to the Minister of Works, to note that I hope FERMA is accounting for its budget because all the works they claim that they did, the state government did them.
“That is the fraud that is going on now. They use money from SURE-P and they are moving about deceiving people in Abuja that they are using it to work in Lagos. To their minds, that is what they will use to win elections here by next year, but the people of Lagos are no fools.”
The governor said other projects in the state were on course and would be ready as due.
He said, “The Lagos-Badagry Expressway is making progress. There is also a lot of progress on Lagos light rail projects, especially from Mile2 to Costain.
“So, it is a gradual process. What you are seeing there is an abandonment that had lasted over two decades. A lot of works still needed to be done.”
Fashola expressed hope that his successor would do better than him in terms of infrastructural renewal and development of the state.
“We are fortunate that over the years, the government of Lagos State is becoming more institutionalised. I really hope that the person who will take over from me will be a lot better than me. I hope that the person can do in four years what it has taken us eight years to do. That I know will be beneficial to all of us.”
However, the South-West 2 Zonal Coordinator, FERMA, Mr. Oladipo Fagbamila, denied the governor’s allegation.
He said, “His Excellency (Fashola) should have mentioned specific roads. There is nothing like that. We don’t claim credit for what we did not do.”
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