•pledges to link riverine communities with bridges
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has officially inaugurated four different roads totalling 10.10km in Oriade, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, promising to look into the alignment of riverine communities in Ojo and Oriade local government areas of the state and link them up with bridges.
The newly commissioned roads are: Old Ojo (Phase 1), Irede, Navy Town, and Mumuni Adio (Buba Marwa), all leading to the jetties in the area.
The Irede, Navy Town, Mumuni Adio (Buba Marwa), and Old Ojo (Phase 1) roads provide a link to both the Lagos Blue Line Rail on the Lagos Badagry Expressway and the water component of the multi-modal transportation initiative with many jetties along the axis.
Governor Sanwo-Olu gave this assurance on Tuesday at the commissioning of four roads, saying that he would change the narrative and link the communities with bridges as some of the roads commissioned linked to jetties.
He said this would be done so that residents of the riverine communities could easily drive into the hinterlands.
“We are thinking of constructing bridges to link the riverine communities. We will look at the alignment most suitable to connect the riverine communities. We will look at the alignment and how possible it will be for the communities to be linked up. We need to look at the alignment and change the scope of things in those areas completely, to look at the alignment that can change the face of these entire communities,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor, who earlier inspected the level of work done at the construction of the Ojo General Hospital, said it would be a specialist multi-purpose hospital with accommodations for the medical personnel and state-of-the-art equipment for them to work with.
He assured that his administration would complete and hand over the hospital for public use before the end of the year 2025.
On the roads officially inaugurated, Governor Sanwo-Olu’ said the priority of his administration was to ease transportation in the state, aid growth and expansion of business activities in the area, adding that his plan was to develop Ojo and Oriade local government areas to enviable status like Victoria Island and Ikoyi.
The governor expressed his administration’s commitment to promoting business activities in the area, saying that occasioned the groundbreaking of 1,500 shops with 300 out of them being lock-up shops at Iba Community.
He said that the shops, being built in partnership with the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) were mainly for the residents in the area when completed.
Earlier in his speech, the Special Adviser (SA) to Lagos State Governor on Infrastructure, Engineer Olufemi Daramola, said the roads were in deplorable conditions before the state government decided to fix them, adding that some that were single lanes had been turned to dual lanes.
He explained that the roads deteriorated because of articulated vehicles that plied them, but assured that they were fixed with materials that can withstand heavy trucks.
The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Mojisola Meranda, who was represented by Hon. Desmond Elliot, urged the people of the community to take charge of the roads as theirs roads, saying that they should not allow people to turn them to parking lots for vehicles.
Meranda said allowing such to happen would make the roads deteriorate easily and deny the people the dividends of democracy.
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