By Grace Alegba
A day after floods caused pain on Lagos-Badagry Expressway, a
Special Intervention Team set up by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu hit the highway to clear shanties on Sunday.
Heavy rainfall had led to flooding in many parts of Lagos, including parts of the highway on Saturday, causing pains to commuters, motorists and residents.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the team, set up to tackle vandalism and dislodge illegal squatters along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway projects, evacuated squatters and removed shanties on the corridor.
The team includes officials of the Ministries of Works and Infrastructure, Transportation, as well as the Police, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority ( LASTMA) and other relevant agencies.
Led by ACP Bayo Sulaiman, the Area Commander in charge of Area F, Ikeja, the team began clearing shanties from Iganmu near Orile to Igboelerin.
Sulaiman led his men to remove gas cylinders from some shanties before using earth moving equipment to remove the makeshift stalls.
Speaking with journalists, Mr Olasunkanmi Ojo-Owuro, Director Operations, Ministry of Transportation, said the exercise was in line with Sanwo-Olu’s vision toward enhancing safety and urban development.
He said the governor’s THEMES+ agenda had traffic and transportation as its first pillars to show his commitment transportation infrastructure development, which includes road and railway network.
The official said the government had made huge transport infrastructure investments on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, including the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the Blue Rail lines which were being vandalised.
Ojo-Owuro said the governor constituted the special intervention committee about five months ago to restore sanity.
He said shanties were built on medians, setbacks, walkways, under bridges, under the train stations, with social miscreants using sledge hammers to remove guard rails and other reinforcement materials from various infrastructure.
He said Phase one of the committee’s assignment was clearance of shanties and miscreants while phase two would be sustainable monitoring for sustainability.
Ojo-Owuro lamented the activities of miscreants, criminals and squatters impacting infrastructure negatively.
“It has put this corridor in a very deplorable state. Mr Governor not being happy about it, constituted a special intervention team to restore sanity, clear all the shanties, remove all the miscreants and make the infrastructure work,” he said.
He appealed to residents to believe in government’s ongoing transportation and infrastructure drive for sustainability of the city.
He said evacuation of illegal shanties on Lagos-Badagry Expressway would address infrastructure abuse which had led to severe degradation on the axis. (NAN)
