Yo-yo policy making: Tollgates will return to federal highways soon – Works minister

by Akan Ido

The minister of works, Mike Onolemenmen, has disclosed the impending re-introduction of tolls on federal highways, including the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to aid regular maintenance and sustainability.

Onolemenmen spoke to journalists on Monday while on tour of North/South road from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway linking Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomoso-Ilorin Road extending to Jebba, Mokwa, Kaduna, Kano and other northern states.

The minister reportedly inspected the 52-kilometre Oyo-Ogbomoso Road, which is the Section 11 of the Ibadan-Ilorin Road being handled by Reynolds Construction Company (RCC).

According to the minister: “The recovery and rehabilitation work will last for eight weeks and between now and then, all the processes leading to the award of the reconstruction contract in line with the Public Procurement Act would have been completed.

“We expect that as soon as the rehabilitation work is completed, the reconstruction work will commence. I assure you that by the first quarter of next year, you will see a major difference on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

“In fact, the rehabilitation of Lagos-lbadan expressway will take eight weeks to complete.”

Onolemenmen said the re-introduction of tollgates will aid the government to “maintain these roads so that they would not go back to the sorry state we met it and similar others across the federation”.

This is coming two weeks after the federal government announced the cancellation of its contract agreement with the road construction firm, Bi-Courtney Consortium, promoted by businessman, Wale Babalakin.

The contract for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was then re-awarded to construction giant, Julius Berger and RCC Limited. It is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

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