Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has alerted the Fed¬eral Government of what he called grand deception by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), accusing the agency of erecting sign¬posts and taking pictures of roads already fixed by Lagos State and sending same to the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja as pro¬jects executed by FERMA in Lagos.
The governor has also given an insight into what is to be expected of the next governor of Lagos, saying the person must be someone prepared to surpass his (Fas¬hola) eight years’ achieve¬ments in the first four years.
“I hope firstly that the next person is a lot better than me, that he can do in four years what we did in eight years, somebody who can do these things in a shorter time. I don’t want to be the best governor of Lagos State,” Fashola said.
Fashola said FERMA was by the illegal act scheming to claim credit for work not done, a development he (Fashola) described as fraudulent. The governor raised the allegation dur¬ing a session with journal¬ists, Tuesday night, at State House, Marina, Lagos. He disclosed that he has alerted the minister of works to the agency’s deceit.
“FERMA is now putting signposts on areas and roads where we have worked, deceiving its employer in Abuja that it is working. I have taken photographs of the area and sent to the minister of works that I hope the people you are giving money in Lagos are account¬ing for the money you are giving them because all the works they claim that they did, we did them.
“That is the fraud that is going on now. They use money from SURE-P and they are moving about de¬ceiving people in Abuja that they are using it to work in Lagos. To their minds, that is what they will use to win elections here by next year, but the people of Lagos are no fools,” Fashola said.
Also speaking on the Apapa regeneration plan, the governor said the state government has begun the second phase of road reha¬bilitation within Apapa, but decried the continued block-ade of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway by the activities of tanker and truck drivers entering or exiting the ports.
He said, “The Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the ports belong to the Fed¬eral Government but the city road inside the GRA belongs to Lagos, and we have awarded contracts to rehabilitate seven roads in the area. We had ear¬lier done the phase one and the phase two has begun. When we finished the first phase, we discovered that tankers were leaving the port to park on the roads built for residents. And this was a failure of supervision and management by the agencies of the Federal Gov¬ernment. The matter has not been resolved; it’s still a tricky one.”
The governor also touch¬ing on the ongoing expan¬sion and rail system on Lagos-Badagry Expressway said it was work in progress, noting that he was regularly receiving progress reports on the projects. “We will soon be going there for phys¬ical inspection,” he added.
