Assembly Asked To Investigate Bad State Of Federal Roads In Lagos

The Deputy Chief Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly and Chairman of an ad-hoc Committee set up by the House to look into the deplorable conditions of federal roads in the state, Rotimi Abiru, has vowed that the Committee would not relent until the truth concerning the roads is revealed.

The House had set up an eight-man Committee after some of the lawmakers publicly lamented that the roads have become death-traps and how many Lagosians have lost their jobs because they got late to their office as a result of the roads.

Mr. Abiru, who spoke with the House correspondents recently, said he was certain that over the years, there would have been allocations for the fixing of the roads just as he wondered where the funds have been channelled.

“You will agree with me that with the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill, we can get information on budgetary allocations for some of these dilapidated roads.

“What we intend to do is to conduct a research on the roads, we will write the National Assembly to request for a list, we got a list from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, which was last updated in 2005, so we will request for an updated list of the federal roads that we have in Lagos and the budgetary allocations for these roads from 1999 to date for us to really see if at any point in time, money was allocated without the President knowing that the money was not used appropriately.

“I would not be surprised if contracts have been awarded for the repair or construction of some of these roads in the past, but if such happens, we will then try to see what really happened and the reason behind the neglect.

“We have also told our colleagues in the House to let us know the federal roads in their constituencies that are in deplorable state with graphic evidences so that when we want to plan the tour of these roads, we will go to the ones that are of much interest to us.

“No doubt, the job will take us to the National Assembly in Abuja and even the Presidency. When our task is completed, we will deliver the report to the President, Lagos State House of Assembly and the Action Congress of Nigeria caucus in the National Assembly so that they can take up the issue of some of these roads.

“It is on record that money has been allocated and spent on some of these roads for the past five years. It is a wake-up call too to the federal agencies in Lagos State and other states to take a cue from this, you will be surprised that contracts for some of these roads have been awarded previously.

Asked why the Committee will not also look at state roads, Abiru said the terms of reference given to it did not include that area.