The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that, baring any unforseen circumstances, the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be completed in December, 2022.
Fashola, who spoke on Channels Television, Sunday evening, said also that the second Niger bridge will be completed within the same period
The Minister had in February 2021, during an interview on Bond FM on Sunday, said the road will be completed in the first quarter of 2022. But early this tear, when he appeared before the national assembly to defend the budget that it will be completed this year.
Even then, Fashola added a caveat on Sunday that the date will be met only when the challenges currently bring faced are removed.
Fashola was responding to questions on the performance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on infrastructure in the last seven years.
Fashola also said the Buhari government was dealing with a lot of contracts which he could not name all on air.
“We are dealing with over a thousand different contracts, we have over a thousand contracts going on.
“We have housing projects, roads in Efon Alaye, Hadejia, Lafya, there is a lot, even if I was a computer, I can’t say everything here,” he said.
“I can’t say the ones that have been initiated or completed, I’m talking of roads of about 500 km or more,” the minister added.
Fashola noted that a lot usually went into construction of roads, adding that governments would not just start and complete roads in two years.
However, Fashola said some factors usually affected road constructions even before starting the projects, which include “Environmental Impact Assessment, relocation of people, actual design, budgets, etc.”
“Where in the world do you finish roads in a year or two?” He queried. He noted that it did not matter who (which government) started a road or finished it.
He noted that the work on the road was not slow. He, however, added that the Oyo State government, led by Seyi Makinde “is constructing a drainage at Ojoo and that has slowed down our work.”
“As we speak now, somewhere around Ojoo, the Oyo State Government is constructing a drainage facility and that has slowed down our work,” Fashola said.
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“You can’t close the road down due to heavy traffic on it. We close sections, open others. The materials being used for the construction are from Ogun State, which also come through the same road.
“It is not slow, government had not funded it sufficiently over the years,” he said.
He however added that only the Buhari government was recovering looted money meant for some projects.
