Ogun Govt Reacts To Criticism on Road Neglect, Appeals To FG On Construction Of Federal Roads

 

ABEOKUTA - The Ogun State Government has responded to criticism on social media, accusing it of neglecting bad roads in the state, contrary to its campaign promises.

The Gateway State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun had on Monday morning trended on X formerly known as Twitter as people called him out over bad roads in some communities in the State.

The X users posted pictures of bad roads from various locations in the state, accusing Abiodun of failing to provide ‘motorable’ roads in the state.

But speaking at a media parley with members of the Consolidated Chapel of NUJ in Abeokuta on Wednesday, Kayode Akinmade, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, defended the government's efforts in renovating roads across the state.

Reacting, Akinmade explained that upon assumption of office, the governor directed local government chairmen in all the 20 local governments to identify roads in need of renovation, which were subsequently repaired.

Akinmade added that over 600 kilometers of roads have been constructed, including some federal government roads.

However, the governor's SA lamented that the state government's efforts to take over the federal government roads for reconstruction have been met with refusal from the federal government. 

According to him “We are all familiar with the intervention on some of the roads in the state by this administration. And you are also aware of the level of deterioration that has pervaded some of the major roads across Ogun state"

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“The governor believes that during his own tenure, he will democratize infrastructure in all the 20 local governments of  the state. Within his 100 days in office, he invited some people to stakeholders meetings, requesting that each of the local governments should meet with their leaders and come up with one major road that is of big challenge for rehabilitation. 

“The local government submitted the list of roads and were reconstructed within four months. We have been doing that but it’s so unfortunate that some people have gone on the social media saying different things. 

“The resources of the government are very limited. There is no way the government can reconstruct all roads across the state at a time. 

“On the social media space, some people join the bandwagon not knowing that they are pushing some people's agenda. Most of the rime they do compare us with Lagos state and but we want the people to know that some of those roads in Lagos state were constructed by the federal government.

“Take those roads out of Lagos and leave the remaining and compare the remaining with what we are doing in Lagos. You will recall that the former administration began an aggressive road construction around Mowe corridor but couldn't finished it and that became a burden to us. Bridges were also constructed where they were not needed”, Akinmade added.

He appealed to the federal government to intervene and take over the responsibility of reconstructing the roads.