The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ogun State chapter, on Wednesday took to the streets to express their grievances over the dilapidated road condition of the Sango-Ota Road section of the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway, by shutting down the road at the Joju area of Sango-Ota.
It will be recalled that, the NLC had on October 6 protested at the Sango-Ota Road with a notice of shutting down the State if nothing was done within 21 days.
The protesters who came out in their large numbers with placards with different inscriptions, such as, “Governor Answer Us, We Don’t Want Palliative Works, We Want Good Road”, “Otta Road Are Death Traps”, “No Federal Road, No Federal Citizens”, “Enough Of Bad Governance”, “Dapo Abiodun, Let Us Enjoy Dividends Of Democracy In Ogun”, “Hear Our Cries, Ogun People Are Suffering”, among others.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the State NLC Chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Bankole, said that the palliative work will only stop them from shutting down the State as they have stated earlier.
According to him, the palliative work is not what the people want and called it a disgrace on the Federal Government, as the project is being done by the Ogun State government.
He, added further that for lying to the people of the State they had declared the Minister for Works and housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola as an enemy of Ogun State.
He said, “21 days ago, we were here. We gave ultimatum to 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, 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, that 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.
“We saw what is in ground which is the effort of the State Government. The Federal Government cannot be collecting all the money and be inflicting pains 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 Ministry of Works to send message to their headquarter in Abuja that we are not pleased with what they are doing.”
Bankole explained further that the initial plan was to shut down the entire State, but for the efforts of the Governor Dapo Abiodun government.
“Ordinarily, the decision was to shut down this place entirely, but the efforts that we have seen by the State Government, the place will not be shut down. We are sensitive, we are not here to inflict pains on the citizens of the State. The citizens are already in pain. We are not here to add to it but to make a statement loud and clear that we won’t allow them to make a mess of us, just like Raji Fashola coming here to tell us that work would start immediately and nothing was done for more than two months. This is unacceptable to us and we are ready to take actions.
“Our people are on ground here to monitor the state of progress. We have our networks all over the state. We would not allow them to come and do window-dressing and leave this place. We want to be monitoring day to day progress on the road, I can assure our people about that,” he said.
The Lagos State NLC chairperson, Comrade Funmi Sessi, in her own remarks, said that Sango, Ifo, Ota and Igbesa is where OGUN State makes his money the most.
With the location been the industrial layout of OGUN, the government shouldn’t shy away from their responsibilities.
“The people should take their destinies into their hands and vote for the rightful leader come 2023” She submitted.
Yanju with Agency Reports
