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Tag: Lekki toll

  • Protest over hike in Lekki Toll flops in Lagos 

    Protest over hike in Lekki Toll flops in Lagos 

    An attempt to stage a protest on Friday February 9, 2018 at the  Lekki-Epe Expressway toll gate of Lekki Concession Company (LCC) against the Lekki toll review failed, as the anti-Lekki toll review protest led by convener, Mr. Dotun Hassan, could not muster enough public support with only a handful of people showing up.

    The convener, who had been mobilising residents of Lekki throughout the week to join the protest, arrived at the Lekki Phase 1 gate at about 9.00 a.m. as against the 7.00 a.m. convergence time he advertised to meet four other protesters and a couple of journalists invited to cover their protest. Addressing the journalists, Dotun Hassan told reporters that it is important and constitutional to make their voice heard, while demanding for total cancellation of tolling at the Admiralty Circle Plaza and the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge.

    After the address, the small group of protesters and media moved from the Lekki Phase 1 gate through Admiralty Road within Lekki Phase 1 and dispersed at about 10.30 a.m. after a short protest.

    Officers of the Lagos State Police Command deployed to maintain law and order ahead of the Lekki toll protest displayed professionalism and control of the situation while keeping the peace and conveying a sense

    of security to law-abiding citizens going about their normal business.

    It would be recalled that the Lekki Concession Company had announced the review in tolls at the Admiralty Circle Plaza at the Lekki Expressway and the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Plaza with effect from Thursday, February 1, 2018 after extensive consultation with stakeholders in the Lekki-Epe/Eti-Osa Local Government Area. The management of LCC had taken into consideration the advice of Traditional Rulers, Community Development Associations (CDA), Youth Organisations, National Union of Road Transport Workers, Residents Associations and sundry groups in arriving at the toll review necessitated by current economic and business realities that are adversely increasing the cost of operations.

  • Lekki Toll: No increase in transport fare says NURTW

    Lekki Toll: No increase in transport fare says NURTW

    Following the toll review at the Admiralty Circle Plaza and the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge Plaza by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Jakande, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, has assured commuters on the Eti-Osa/Lekki-Epe Expressway that it will not increase transport fare.

    Chairman of the union, Alhaji Taofeek Oluwa, praised LCC for consulting the union before the review.

    From today, commercial buses ‘Danfo’ will be paying N90 as against former N80 for e-Tag and N100 for cash payments.

    Alhaji Oluwa said: “As long as LCC honours its agreement of our mutual understanding at the stakeholders’ meeting, we can confidently support LCC by assuring that commuters will not suffer any increase in the fare paid to board branded commercial buses coming into or going out of Eti-Osa/Lekki-Epe Expressway. The NURTW is happy to endorse the toll fare review.”

    A union official, Alhaji Quadri Adesokan, said LCC has promised to improve the standards of the roads for the safety of passengers.

    “We have heard the concerns of the LCC and have agreed to support them because they have promised us to maintain the roads. A large number of our buses are using the e-tag which affords us unhindered entry and return from Lekki-Epe Expressway”.

  • Lagos APC condemns Agbaje’s plan for Lekki toll

    Lagos APC condemns Agbaje’s plan for Lekki toll

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has taken a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) governorship candidate for promising to reverse the toll gates at the Lekki end of the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

    The Lagos State government had franchised the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) to source funds and rebuild the highway to international standard under the Build-Own-Operate- and Transfer (BOOT) arrangement.

    But Agbaje said he would cancel the arrangement, if he succeeded Governor Babatunde Fashola.

    The APC, in a statement by its spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, said the promise by the PDP candidate could scare investors from the Centre of Excellence.

    “The threat is an irrational electoral promise directed at foreign investors, which stands to cripple the economy of Lagos and affect the wobbling Nigerian economy.

    “It is quite surprising that at this age and time, when the drive for foreign investment is needed to break the shackles of economic doom, an aspiring candidate to the Lagos State governorship stool should issue such naked threats to investors to boost his electoral chances.

    “Two days after Agbaje’s disastrous election promise to cancel the foreign-driven concession on the Lekki-Épé Expressway, newspapers carried a report that foreign investors, alarmed by the economic and political risks in the country, had pulled out N783.17 billion from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (SEC).

    “This is an alarming economic statistics that should worry every Nigerian but in his desperation to scoop votes from Lagosians, Agbaje is threatening to stop foreign investments in Lagos, such as the concession arrangement behind the construction and subsequent tolling of Lekki-Epe Expressway.”

    Picking holes in Agbaje’s statement, Igbokwe said the PDP-controlled Federal Government should explain to Nigerians why it planned to mount toll gates at six locations on the yet-to-be-built Second Niger Bridge.

    “Lagosians will like to know from Agbaje and his PDP why the Federal Government is promising a non-existent 1.8-kilometre Second Niger Bridge that will be tolled from at least six positions for 25 years while he is making a campaign issue of tolling a well delivered Lekki-Epe Expressway that meets the great needs of the beneficiary towns for a relief from endless traffic bottlenecks the PDP Federal Government has turned a blind eye to.

    “Again, Lagosians are aware that the dilapidated Airport Road, which the PDP controlled-Federal Government has abandoned while playing politics with completed world-class roads in Lagos are tolled.

    “But we find it alarming that someone who dreams of governing Lagos is issuing such economically disastrous threat to foreign investment in a state such as Lagos when the Federal Government under the control of his party has made the sing song of attracting elusive foreign investment the epicenter of its failed economic programme for the past 16 years.”

  • Lekki toll: Lagos seeks delay in judgment execution

    Lagos State government on Monday urged the Federal High Court to stay execution of the judgment which declared toll collection on the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge lawless.

    It prayed the court to order that status quo be maintained until its appeal at the Court of Appeal is determined.

    Justice Saliu Saidu had, in a March 27 judgment, held there was no law backing toll collection on the bridge.

    He delivered the verdict in a suit filed by a human rights lawyer Pastor Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa.

    Moving his application, Lagos Attorney-General, Mr. Ade Ipaye, maintained that the court did not make a specific order of injunction stopping toll collection on the bridge.

    “It’s now necessary to order that parties maintain the status quo,” Ipaye said.

    Urging the court to grant the government’s prayers, the Attorney-General said the state has more to lose if the application is refused and the appeal succeeds.

    “The loss he (Adegboruwa) is probably going to suffer, even if the appeal is dismissed, can be ascertained in terms of money because he has the receipts (of toll payment). The loss that he will suffer is one that can be remedied.

    “On the other hand, if that bridge is closed, or if it is opened and all vehicles are allowed to pass, there is no way to capture the loss that will be incurred in case the appeal succeeds.

    “It’s in the interest of justice to grant stay pending appeal, or to make an order to maintain the status quo,” Ipaye said, adding that “status quo is what is going on there now.”

    Opposing the application, Adegboruwa urged the court to dismiss it because Lagos has allegedly not obeyed the judgment in the first place.