By Kenneth Jukpor
Dangote Group is set to begin reconstruction of the bad portions of the Coconut-Mile2 axis of the Oshodi-Apapa expressway as the Federal Government concludes the procurement agreement which would see the group receive massive tax rebate for the reconstruction.
A top source from the Ministry of Works revealed this to journalists in Lagos after on the spot inspection of the bad portions of the road in conjunction with the officials of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) on Wednesday, last week.
According to the source, “The road is under procurement and it has been ceded to AG Dangote and they just at the final stage of the award. After the Bureau for Public Procurement endorses it, the project will go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval and it will be awarded to AG Dangote”.
After observing the immense hardship the commuters, business environment and residents suffer as a result of the deplorable state of the road, the source stated that she would speak to the Dangote Group to initiate temporary palliatives since the road had been ceded to AG Dangote.
She said: “Having seen this, I will go back and tell them, they are my contractors. The same way they have been doing in Tin Can, if you go to Tin Can as we speak now, they are doing some palliatives. They first did on Oshodi bound and now they are at Tin Can bound. So,, they can extend the same palliative measures to this place, pending when the reconstruction will take off and the palliative will include de-silting of all the drains, taking water out of the road even if it is on the service lane, they can concentrate and do palliatives to aid vehicular movements pending when the reconstruction will get there”
Explaining the modalities of the contract, she stated that the project wasn’t going to be done as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by Dangote Group, as the Apapa Wharf road reconstruction, she said, “It’s not an extension of that contract. Dangote is recouping back his money through tax relief on this one but Apapa- Wharf road was purely CSR, they are not asking for any tax relief”.
Acknowledging the level of repair made on the road by the Tank Farm owners, she commended the work done so far on the road by the Tank Farm owners, noting that the palliatives would subsist pending when the reconstruction would get there even as she admitted that everything would have to be reconstructed.
“It was just because they were in a hurry, they couldn’t wait for Dangote to mobilize and do the palliative on the road. That’s why we allowed them since it is affecting their business, just like it was affecting Dangote and Co. business, that’s why they contributed to do the Apapa Wharf road” she added.
She assured that the reconstruction would commence soonest, saying; “As soon as I get there, I will inform them and we expect them to begin the palliatives soon. We were trying to meet in the Ministry may be to appoint another contractor to hurriedly do the palliative but since the road is at the final state, the Ministry didn’t want to do that. Work has been ongoing for some time just on this road to get it awarded, I think the only person that can assist us do this is the contractor because they have already have a project at hand and palliative is part of the contract”.
