Press Releases

Roads: Fashola Reiterates Appeal To Lagosians For Patience
...Says abduction of journalists a painful development

Jul 14, 2010 - Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Wednesday reiterated his appeal to the people of Lagos to be patient, to forbear and understand that Government is mindful of the problems which the rains have brought on the condition of some of the roads in the State.

The Governor who spoke in an interview with Aviation Correspondents at the Local wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport on his return from an official trip to Abuja added that government is working very hard and will soon deal with the problems.

He said road maintenance is a continuous process which validates the position of the Government right from the outset that work can never finish as long human beings exist, saying: "When you finish one road, a new one will always exist. Some of them are feeder roads, while some are main arterial roads".

Governor Fashola explained that in every situation where human beings exist, the needs would always be more than the resources available.

He added that this explains why the State Government started first by applying the resources in the most judicious manner to the roads that carry the greatest traffic and the roads that help the people get to work.

He listed the roads to include Third Mainland Bridge, Alapere and Funsho Williams, Ikorodu Road, and Agege Motor Road among others.

He said there is no point in rehabilitating the road in the streets or neighbourhoods and neglect the major ones that will result in people not being able get to work to earn livelihood because of the poor state of such major roads.

In his words: "Where the resources are not infinite, we must continue to manage. There are also plans to address the feeder roads as many as possible but also we live in this period when the weather is not our friend".

"The production at our bitumen and asphalt plant is also hampered by the weather. The material, the sharp sand has to be dried before we can put it in and manufacture bitumen. This is nature at work", he explained.

Governor Fashola described the abduction of four journalists by unknown men in Aba, Abia State as a very sad and painful development, adding that his heart, that of his family and the government goes to the victims, their families and colleagues of the victims of the very heinous crime for the traumatic period of anxiety, uncertainty that they are all going through.

"I assure you that we go through this pain with you and hope that the matter would be brought to a happy and prompt closure and we hope also that thereafter very hard lessons for the future would be learnt", he added.

Governor Fashola asserted that nobody deserves to be treated like this and be held in captivity by fellow human beings and expressed the hope that the siege would be brought to a closure very soon.

On what his administration has in stock for Lagosians for the remainder of the year and especially as electioneering period is approaching, Governor Fashola said electioneering campaign should not be an excuse not to work.

He said the present administration has a four year mandate which it will finish with the same zeal and energy that it started, stressing that nothing less is good for Lagosians.