OSHODI-APAPA EXPRESSWAY GRIDLOCK: Fashola, Ambode Ignore road as robbers terrorise motorists

Residents and motorists that use the gateway to the nation’s major ports, the Oshodi-Apapa expressway, are back to the days of horrifying gridlock that makes their lives miserable. Traffic robbers are back, dispossessing trapped motorists of their belongings. It is pitiable that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and his predecessor, who happens to be the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, despite assuring Lagosians of readiness to solve the perennial problem by completing the rehabilitation of the dual carriageway in good time have jettisoned the rehabilitation work.

It seems the scenario stopping the rehabilitation of Oshodi-Murtala Airport road is also playing out on this all-important expressway.

Governor Ambode had accused the Federal Ministry of Works of frustrating some of his plans in Lagos State, saying  the federal ministry of two things: failure to allow the state government rebuild the Oshodi road that leads to the Lagos Airport and failure to ensure the proper handover of the Presidential Lodge in Lagos to the state government as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Responding to the accusation, the Minister,  said his “response is to ensure that members of the public are not misled by deliberate or inadvertent mis-statements” of the Lagos governor. The minister explained that the request of the Lagos government to take over the Oshodi-airport road, as well as three other federal roads in the state, was still being discussed at the Federal Executive Council. 

“Federal Executive Council Memorandum are debated and commented upon by all members and in cases of roads, surveys, maps and other material have to be provided to assist members understand the location and connectivity of the roads, (in this case Four roads), in order to assist how they vote on the Memorandum,” Fashola said.

A visit to Tin Can Island through Oshodi yesterday revealed the pitiable state of the highway between Coconut Bus-stop and Tin Can Port second gate. The entire stretch of the road is in a terrible state of degradation due to several years of neglect, with gullies and deep potholes on the road. The menacing presence of the petroleum products tankers and trailers on the road is the reason  Apapa-bound motorists and commuters spend several hours to get to their destinations on daily basis. 

Those who have targets to meet now use the services of commercial motorcycle operators popularly called Okada riders despite the obvious risk. In fact, most commercial drivers and motorists now navigate through Olodi-Apapa through Boundary, Ajegunle, to access Apapa. 

The indiscriminate parking of these trucks worsen the already chaotic traffic situation in the area. This traffic gridlock  has led to hoodlums vandalising peoples’ cars and robbing them of their belongings. According to eyewitnesses accounts, so many commuters have been so far dispossessed of their belongings by miscreants since the reappearance of the terrible traffic situation. One of the victims, a port operator who pleaded anonymity told Vanguard that: “It is not clear what led to the resurgence of the gridlock on this expressway after it had disappeared for sometime.

Vanguard