VIDEOS: Flood takes over Sango-Ota roads

…Governors Abiodun, Sanwo-Olu to the rescue

The rainfall season has compounded the hardship motorists and commuters face on the Lagos-Sango-Ota-Abeokuta road as flood took over the Sango Ota under Bridge area on Sunday morning.

A video obtained by WESTERN POST shows private vehicles driving through the flooded road with some commercial mini-buses stuck in the muddy waters.

Dating back to the administration of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, successive administrations have paid no attention to the deplorable condition of the road and the need for its rehabilitation. Even the presence of industries along the stretch of the federal link road from Lagos to Ogun State did not inspire efforts to reconstruct the road. Commuters and residents of the area thus continue to bear the devastating consequences.

However, speaking about the road, Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun revealed that federal officials had frustrated the reconstruction efforts. 

Recalling the efforts by Ogun and Lagos State Governments to take over and reconstruct the Lagos-Sango Abeokuta Expressway, Abiodun said he and his Lagos State counterpart were frustrated by delays from the Federal Government, right from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the Governor, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in power, the federal government was approached once again to transfer the road to the state, a request that was eventually granted.

He, however, said the state still faces stiff opposition from some federal officials on the transfer, which forced the state government to formally award the contract in May, with or without the necessary transfer papers.

He said: “The Lagos-Sango- Abeokuta road is a federal government road and has been in a very bad shape for long. Because of the suffering our people pass through on the road, I and my counterpart in Lagos jointly wrote a letter, using a single letterhead to the Federal Executive Council, seeking the transfer of that road for us to reconstruct.

“After waiting for a month without a reply, we wrote a reminder. That road was not handed over to us until the present federal government came on board. The contract for the road has since been awarded since May this year.”