After the expiration of 21 days ultimatum, the Sango-Ota section of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway was on Wednesday locked down by members of the Nigerian Labour Congress in Ogun State and residents of the area.
This is coming after the NLC had given the Ogun State government and the Federal government a 21-day ultimatum for them to fix the deplorable road.
The NLC had on October 6 stormed the Sango portion of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway, with a threat to shut down the state if nothing was done within 21 days.
The NLC, after the expiration of the ultimatum, mobilised its members to the failed portions of the expressway and blocked the road.
The workers and residents gathered at Sango again for the protest, carrying placards with various inscriptions such as “Enough of bad governance”, “Dapo Abiodun, let us enjoy the dividends of democracy in Ogun”, “Dapo, this suffering is too much”, “Hear our cries, Ogun people are suffering”, “Dapo repair our roads, it is our right,” and others.
The development made the travellers plying the road to be stranded.
Meanwhile, the NLC described the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, as a liar and an enemy of the State.
The NLC said Fashola had visited Ogun some months ago, promising to commence reconstruction works on the collapsed portions of the Sango road.
Speaking during the protest, the NLC Chairman in the state, Emmanuel Bankole, said Ogun workers had declared Fashola a “persona non grata”, saying, “we don’t want to see him, he lied to us, he fooled us.”
Bankole said, “21 days ago, we were here. We gave an ultimatum to the government that we are not pleased with the state of the roads; particularly the Minister of Works coming here to promise that palliative works will commence immediately and several weeks after nothing was done. That was why the 21 days ultimatum was given. Interestingly, a few days ago, they started some works. We can see some loads of granites by the State Government. But this is not yet what we asked for. The Minister was here and he promised to commence immediate palliative, which is yet to happen. As such, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, for coming to lie to the citizens of Ogun State, is being declared ‘persona non grata’ in Ogun State. We are declaring him an enemy of Ogun State. We don’t want to see him in Ogun State for coming to fool and deceive us that palliative works will commence and nothing was done. We saw what is on the ground which is the effort of the State Government. The Federal Government cannot be collecting all the money and be inflicting pain on us. That’s why we are here to make the statement loud and clear that Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Ministry of Works and also the FERMA in Ogun State are being declared persona non grata. When we leave this place, we are going to the FERMA’s office in Abeokuta and also the Ministry of Works to send a message to their headquarter in Abuja that we are not pleased with what they are doing.”