The Sango-Ota Expressway was on Wednesday blocked by members of the Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who protested against the deplorable state of the road after its ultimatum expired.
The Ogun State NLC had given the Ogun State government and the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum for them to fix the bad road.
The unionists had on October 6 stormed the Sango portion of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway, with a threat to shut down the state expressway if nothing was done within 21 days.
However, the NLC was seen at the road on Wednesday with its mobilised members at the failed portions of the expressway and blocked the road.
Some workers and residents of the area also gathered at Sango-Ota Road 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”, “and Dapo repair our roads, it is our right”.
Emmanuel Bankole, Ogn State NLC Chairman, described the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, as a liar and an enemy of the state.
According to Bankole, Fashola a “persona non grata”, expressing how they do not want to see him.
He said: ‘Fashola had visited Ogun some months ago, promising to commence reconstruction works on the collapsed portions of the Sango road.
“We don’t want to see him, he lied to us, he fooled us. 21 days ago, we were here. We gave an ultimatum to the government that we are not pleased with the state of the roads.
“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, he 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.”
Bankole further said the state government has tried with the little on the ground, but the Federal government are “here to collect money, they only inflict pain on the people”.
“We saw what is in 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 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 Ministry of Works to send message to their headquarter in Abuja that we are not pleased with what they are doing,” Bankole said.
However, this development forced travellers plying the road to be stranded.
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