The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Lagos/Ibadan

  • Update on Ibadan accident: Police confirm 26 dead, 11 injured

    The Oyo State Police Command said that 26 people died in the early Saturday morning ghastly motor accident, which occurred at the Ibadan end of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

    The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Kunle Ajisebutu confirmed the accident and said that11 others including three children sustained severe injuries.

    Ajisebutu said that eyewitnesses reported that two commercial buses had a head-on-collision with the vehicles immediately bursting into flames claiming 26 lives.

    “Corpses of the dead have been deposited at Adeoyo General Hospital, Yemetu, while the injured were taken to the Ibadan Central Hospital, and the University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan for medical attention.

    “Police investigation has begun.

    “The victims were evacuated by a combined team of police men from the Toll Gate Police Division and men of the FRSC.

    “The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude visited the scene immediately,” he said.

    Mr Deji Bobade, the Public Relations Officer of the UCH, confirmed that a male accident victim was admitted at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital at about 7. 30 am. (NAN)

  • Motorists groan on Lagos/Ibadan Road

    Motorists groan on Lagos/Ibadan Road

    For the third day running, commuters and motorists on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway have been telling sad tales–of pain and anguish– as  Julius Berger Nigeria Limited works on the ever-busy road.

      Besides manhours lost in traffic, commuters face threats to lives from robbers, who lay in wait for broken down vehicles in the gridlock.

    Yesterday, passengers and motorists spent several hours between Mowe/Ibafo  to Berger bus stop in Lagos.

    Two articulated trucks broke down on the Long Bridge.

    There were no emergency and traffic management agencies to remove the trucks. There was a gridlock for inbound and outbound vehicles.

     Since the last few months  of rehabilitation, motorists and passengers have experienced pains on the road, with many spending more money on fuel and other expenses.

    A resident of Magboro in Ogun State, Azeez Lawani, called on the government to prevail on Julius Berger to adopt a strategy to reduce the man hours spent on the road.

    He complained of inhaling fumes from vehicles. This, said Lawani, endangers the health of passengers and motorists.

    A motorist, Segun Ilase, deplored the indiscipline among motorists.

    The Arepo resident said the gridlock was having a huge impact on family finances as they spend more on fares hiked by commercial operators.

    On Tuesday night, commercial transport operators charged between N500 and N700 on the Berger/Ibafo/Mowe as against the normal N100.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has advised motorists to take alternative routes, to avoid the two trucks, which broke down on the Long Bridge.

    Clement Oladele, sector commander in Ogun, advised motorists to take the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and Ikorodu Road to beat the traffic.

  • Lagos/Ibadan expressway will be completed in July 2017, says Infrastructure Bank boss

    Lagos/Ibadan expressway will be completed in July 2017, says Infrastructure Bank boss

    the Managing Director of Infrastructure Bank (TIB) PLC, Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye, has reassured users of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway that work on the N167 billion project will be completed by July next year.

    Oyinloye, in a statement in Abuja after the bank’s board meeting, said motorists have nothing to fear about the completion date regardless of the current lull on the construction work.

    He promised that work would resume as soon as the legal issues surrounding the project were resolved.

    Construction work, he said, had already reached 30 per cent.

    He said additional financial commitments have already been secured from the project financiers through whom, he added, the initial N50 billion was raised for the project.

    He said that all the stakeholders on the project, including the Federal Ministry of Works, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and the contractors – Julius Berger PLC and RCC – were determined to meet the completion date target.

    Oyinloye commended the perception of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on the state of infrastructure in Nigeria and the concept of Public Private Partnership in rescuing them from decay.

    He also announced plan by the bank to construct a 280-kilometre ”green-field dual carriage way” that will link Abuja with Ibadan through Kwara State.

  • Fix Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, senator urges Jonathan

    Fix Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, senator urges Jonathan

    Senator Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central) has decried the poor state of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

    In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, Ojudu said: “It is disturbingly saddening that the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, which is the artery that links the commercial capital of Nigeria with the rest of the country, has become like a path through a jungle.”

    He said President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent visit to the road was greeted with a deep sense of relief by the people, but “it seems Mr. President was more concerned about the publicity he got than fixing the road.

    Ojudu said: “When President Jonathan knew he was not going to mobilise the contractors to do the job, why did he go there to raise people’s hopes? This is more depressing than not going there at all.”

    He said it was the government’s duty to make life bearable for the citizens, adding that no serious government would abandon such a strategic road, especially since 85 per cent of goods imported into the country and almost 90 per cent of goods exported are taken to and from the ports through the road.

    Ojudu said: “On a daily basis, people die needlessly on this road and goods worth millions of Naira are destroyed. Only on Monday, a trailer-loaded with corn fell and the goods were destroyed. That is millions of Naira down the drain! How then do we encourage businessmen and entrepreneurs, who sweat daily to make Nigeria better and provide jobs for our army of unemployed youths?

    “Heaven knows how many businesses have folded up due to losses suffered from accidents on this road. A journey that should ordinarily take two hours takes five hours on that road. That in itself is another loss of money arising from needless waste of time spent by motorists groping their way, as though in the dark, through that road.

    “Recently, Mr. President visited the road and, in the full glare of the world and the mass media, promised that the road would be fixed, but what we have seen is that portholes on the road are being marked with white paint, suggesting another regime of endless road-patching. If that is the case, it would be the highest level of wickedness and emotional torture to Nigerians, who daily travel on that road.”

  • School repairs Lagos/Ibadan expressway

    School repairs Lagos/Ibadan expressway

    Worried by the traffic gridlock and commuters’ agony caused by bad portions on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Access International School in Magboro, Ogun State has embarked on some repairs of the ever-busy road.

    The school’s Proprietor, Dr Jonathan Akpan said it has mobilised Mataba Construction for the exercise as part its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the society.

    Akpan told The Nation that the bad portions in four major places between Mowe and Magboro – opposite the NASFAT praying ground, Red Cross office at Ibafo, Yetkem filling station, and Mountain Top University were filled up.

    Akpan said the school embarked on the project which cost up to half a million naira because of the pains commuters, especially workers and pupils, have been going through since last year.

    “Out of pity, I did this because both local and state governments are trading blames on who should repair the road and their conclusion has been that the road is a Federal road, so nobody was ready to repair it. I sought permission from the Federal Road Safety Commission and they appointed some of their men to work with us in order to help us control the traffic while the construction lasts.

    “I believe this will be a big relief to many Nigerians who ply this road because of the trauma they have experienced in the past,” he said.

    Apart from the road, Akpan said Access has supported many areas, including donating four laptops to the Early Childhood Department of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) Ijagun, Ogun State to ease the processing of students results.

    The Proprietor, however, called on corporate bodies and individuals to emulate this kind gesture by giving back to their society while calling on governments at all levels to make the welfare of citizens a top priority.

    He called on the Akwa Ibom State Government to come to the aid of Ikot Udofia community in Nsit-Atai Local Government Area of the state by providing basic amenities, such as public schools, electricity, hospitals, and potable water, saying he dug the only borehole in the community five years ago.