Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has
denied allegations made by Lagos State Governor, Ambode that he
is frustrating the government of Lagos State’s efforts to rebuild the
International Airport /Oshodi Road.
Fashola in a statement made by his Spkesperson, Hakeem Bello said:
“The allegations of lack of cooperation from the Ministry and
frustration of Lagos State Government development initiatives are simply
not true and the facts do not bear them out.
“In 2016, the Hon Minister for Power Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde
Raji Fashola, SAN, approved the use of the Federal Ministry of Works
yard at Oworonsoki for Lagos State Government to create a lay-by to ease
traffic.
“The Hon Minister also approved that Lagos State be granted the Rights
to manage the Street Lighting on the 3rd Mainland Bridge to support the
security initiatives of the State, a request which the previous Federal
Government administration had denied Lagos State for years.
“During the same year, the Hon Minister also supported the approval of
the World Bank Loan of $200m to Lagos State, again a request the
previous administration had denied Lagos State.
“As far as International Airport Road which is currently the ground for
alleged “frustration” is concerned, the correct position is that the
Lagos State Government presented a request for four roads that it would
wish to take over.
“This is consistent with the position being canvassed by the Hon
Minisiter for states who are interested to apply to take over roads that
are within their states.
“The Ministry has presented the Memorandum conveying the request of the
Lagos State government to the Federal Executive Council as was done with
a similar request by the Kaduna State government in 2016.
“Due to the fact that two of the roads also connect Ogun State, the
Federal Executive Council could not reach an immediate decision on them
because it requested the input of the other state government affected.
“The Kaduna State government requested the Federal Government to
transfer two roads within Kaduna Metropolis to the state in November
2015. Due process was followed and the request of the state government
was approved in August 2016, a period of ten months.
“Federal Executive Councill Memorandum are debated and commented upon by
all members and in cases of roads, surveys, maps and other material
have to be provided to assist members understand the location and
connectivity of the roads, (in this case Four roads), in order to assist
how they vote on the Memorandum.
“As far as the Presidential Lodge is concerned, it is under the
management of the Presidency and not the Ministry.
“After the approval by Mr President that the Presidential Lodge be
handed over to the State Government, there was a directive to the
Ministry to work out the modalities for handing over.
“The ministry has prepared a vesting instrument to convey the transfer
and all that is needed is a survey plan.
“The Presidential Lodge is a high security location and officials of the
Ministry also require security clearance to enter in order to do any
works.
“Access to the lodge is not under the control of the Ministry.The motive
behind this public accusations must therefore be scrutinised coming
barely a week after the governor spoke with the Honorable Minister, Mr
Babatunde Fashola SAN on the outstanding requests of the State for
several minutes and the Minister took time to explain the situation of
things to the governor. (The first telephone conversation the governor
has had with the minister since May 29, 2015).
“If there is any lack of co-operation it is on the part of the state
government that has refused to acknowledge not to talk of approving the
Ministry’s request for Land of the National Housing Programme in Lagos.
“The ministry is not frustrated by this lack of response and remains
optimistic that a response will come from Lagos State.
“The ministry remains committed to serving the government and good
people of Lagos and will treat all their requests on merit and in
accordance with necessary due process as will be done to other states.
“As far as the refund of N51Billion is concerned, this is not a new
item. Almost all if not all states have these claims and the Federal
Ministry of Power Works and Housing has verified these claims.
“What is left is the process of raising the finance to pay the debt owed
to the States.
“Those who are familiar with the workings of Government will attest to
the fact that it is an intricate sequence of processses, consultation
and collaboration.
“Equating processes to a lack of co-operation is therefore akin to creating a storm in a tea cup.”
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