Jaiyeola Andrews
4 January 2009
Abeokuta — Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel, has described the on-going construction of Sagamu-Ogijo road as very significant to national and state economies, saying his government would pursue the project with vigour.
Though a federal road, Daniel said "Ogun State government embarked on construction of the road to facilitate movement of petroleum products from Nigerian Nationap Petroelum Corporation (NNPC) Depot, Mosimi, Sagamu, to South-west parts of the country and to ameliorate the plights of commuters plying the road."
Daniel, while inspecting work on the road, said, "we are determined to contruct this road and that is why I came here in the first working day of the year to inspect the work and encourage the people working here.
"Sometimes in the past, this road became so bad that the Federal Government, through a contractor from FERMA, said he has a job to do here and nothing was done, it was so bad that at a stage, fuel tankers were falling down here and there and before we knew what was going on, it almost led to fuel scarcity and we felt we should not fold our arms and allow people to suffer.
"The fact of the case is that it is such a sensitive road, it affects our economy and the hazard are so enormous, especially when tankers cannot go and load fuel, which sould lead to another set of challenges."
Daniel said the cost of constructing the road has eaten deep into the meagre resources of the state, pointing out that " the Federal Government is still owing us plenty of money and at the last count, I think we are owed in the excess of N5billion on account of some of the federal roads rehabilitated.
"Ogun State is not a state that has a lot of money to play with but I think this road is very essential, it is very key to the economy of the state, it is key to the economy of South-west and Nigeria, rather than fold our arms, we will do what we have to do and move on," Daniel said.
Other roads inspected by Daniel included, Ogunyanwo Road in Sagamu and roads leading into the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, and linking Obafemi Awolowo road in Ikenne and Sagamu -Ijebu Ode expressway, where massive construction work were going on.Earlier, Daniel had visited old secretariat at Oke-ilewo, Abeokuta, where he assured that everything possible would be done to relocate the workers to the new secretariat complex at Oke-Mosan, which he promised to complete by May, 2009, to pave way for the construction of a befitting city centre in the state capital, which is part of the Urban renewal programme of the Daniel administration.
He said, "we are starting work in earnest, which is a signal to the entire population that it is going to be a year for hard work. As you are aware, what we have always known how to do here is work, so we are ensurig that even from day one, we will wake everybody up to let them know that this is a year of achievement for us."
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