April 6, 2018

A federal lawmaker, Rep. Oghene Egoh, has urged the Lagos State Government to hasten the reconstruction of the burnt FESTAC Town link bridge in his constituency.

Egoh, representing Amuwo-Odofin Federal Constituency, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

NAN reports that a fuel tanker laden with petrol fell and caught fire on the bridge in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Council Area of Lagos State in December 2017 and also destroyed some other properties.

The closure of the link bridge, according to the Lagos State Government, was based on expert advice from the state’s Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

The ministry had said that the integrity of a section of the bridge was in doubt and therefore needed to be closed down for repairs.

However, Egoh said the interest of the people of his constituency was paramount to his representation.

“I am elected to represent the interest of my constituency, whatever the challenges they are facing also affect me and I have to be proactive in addressing such challenges.

“I am appealing to the Lagos State Government to please come to the aid of my people by speeding up the repair of the burnt bridge.

“The construction company in charge is too slow in repairing the bridge, the work of two months is taking them more than three months, and this is not encouraging.

“The suffering and challenges of traffic in the constituency is too much and it is telling on the people,’’ he said.

According to him, the burnt link bridge is causing gridlock around that community as commuters now use alternative routes which is not convenient.

“A journey of 30 minutes will take vehicle owners one and half hours because of the delay in the reconstruction work.

“The people have been calling me on telephone to come to their aid by informing the government about the situation of the bridge repair,’’ he said.

Egoh said the bridge was constructed and commissioned for use in 1992, adding that he was part of those who inaugurated the bridge.

He assured the people of the constituency of better representation and promised that the government would speed up the repair work and complete it soon.