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Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke
The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has questioned Governor Ademola Adeleke’s directive to restrict heavy-duty trucks from using the Olaiya Flyover in Osogbo, describing it as unnecessary and demanding evidence to support claims that the bridge is unsafe.
Some selected leaders of the party, who spoke on behalf of APC in Osogbo on Wednesday, said the reason given by Adeleke for directing trucks to stop plying the bridge was a mere precursor to a larger plan by the current administration.
Adeleke had earlier directed the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure to stop heavy-duty trucks from plying the Olaiya bridge.
The governor, in a statement by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, cited safety reasons arising from the technical reports on the state of the bridge, for the decision.
In response, the immediate past Osun State Commissioner for Works, Oluremi Omowaiye, while going through the efforts that led to the construction of the bridge, explained that the project went through standard evaluation at every stage of its execution and challenged the Adeleke administration to provide a technical report indicating that the bridge was substandard.
Omowaiye, an Executive Director, Project Implementation at the Federal Housing Authority, who was flanked by other leaders of the party in the state at the press conference said, “Before work would commence on the project, the first thing we did was to carry out an environmental impact assessment, and we did traffic count to look at the vehicular movement and congestion at that corridor.”
He added, “Then we discovered that the solution was to put a flyover, and we also discovered that most of the motor accidents usually happened because a lot of motorists, travellers plying that road usually travel at top speed.
“So, we wrote the Federal Ministry of Works, because the road is a federal road that we intend to do the project, following our assessment.
“As the Commissioner for Works under the Gboyega Oyetola administration, I supervised the project. Because Osogbo is the state capital, we looked at that project beyond structural designs. We added values to the flyover project. That was why we added fish to represent the cultural value of Osogbo, we added dancing fountains, we added solar lights because of travellers travelling at night, and cameras.”
He expressed shock over Adeleke’s comments about the bridge, stating that during a recent visit to Osun, they discovered the area had been abandoned, with solar lights no longer functioning and the surroundings in a dirty and neglected state.
However, he clarified that the condition did not affect the structural integrity of the flyover.
He stated, “We are not saying the government should not do whatever they want to do, but the state resources belong to the people of Osun. It must be spent judiciously. They must not say they want to demolish Olaiya flyover because of politics. I want them to come out with the technical report that says that the bridge has a fault. I challenge any engineer that claim that bridge has fault to come up with the report and put his NSE number.”
When contacted for reaction, the Director of Media for the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Oladele Bamiji, said Adeleke took the decision based on the alarm raised by the motorists plying the area on the state of the Olaiya flyover.
Bamiji also stated that there was a motion raised by a lawmaker on the floor of the Osun State House Assembly, alerting the government to the deteriorating state of the Flyover, insisting Adeleke’s action was to protect the lives of the people, rather than being political.
“Adeleke is not interested in erasing anyone’s legacy. Legacy of danger can’t be allowed to cause danger for the residents. As a governor, if he fails to act, and anything untoward happens, these people would be among the first set to attack the government.
“Safety of lives and properties of Osun people is more important than legacy of anyone. Motorists plying the road raised the alarm about the poor condition of the bridge.
“There was a motion on the floor of the House of Assembly by a lawmaker and the governor was advised to act. Whatever step is taken by the Governor has the backing of the Osun PDP. It is devoid of politics,” Bamiji said.
