The ongoing Lagos-Ibadan express road repairs will soon be completed, the senator representing Lagos West, Solomon Adeola, has said.
Adeola assured the residents that work on the dual carriageway, being undertaken by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Reynolds Construction Company Limited, will be completed, hopefully, in 2018.
The assurance is coming on the heel of controversy trailing alleged reduced funding for the busy road in the 2018 budget.
The Lagos West lawmaker noted that ample provisions (N20.5 billion) were made for the road in the 2018 budget proposal.
A statement by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, said the senator, who is the Chairman of Senate Committee on Local Content and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, was reacting to the recent condemnations of the Executive and the National Assembly over the reduction of a proposed N31 billion to N10 billion in the 2017 budget and the failure of a proposed virement before the presentation of the 2018 budget proposals.
Adeola was quoted to have said that with the President’s presentation of the 2018 budget, “the issue of virement is now in abeyance with the issue still trapped in legislative process of the National Assembly”.
He added: “Following the President’s presentation of the 2018 budget proposal, our focus is now on how to appropriate funds for the Lagos-Ibadan express dual carriageway as the virement requested by the Executive as well as supplementary budget suggested by some of us did not see the light of day with the year almost gone.”
The senator expressed happiness that the 2018 budget proposal under consideration made ample provisions for the expressway, which serves as a major road network for economic activities in Nigeria.
He added that efforts would be made to ensure that the provisions are passed and strict implementation enforced for the completion of the project.
Adeola said: “In all, N20.5 billion was made for the dual carriageway in the 2018 proposal. For Section 1 of the project, N9 billion was proposed while Section 2 of the project has N11.5 billion. We will consider an increase, if possible, in view of debt from unpaid completion certificates already executed on the two sections to see contractors back to site and working fully early next year.”
