The Lagos State chapter of Labour Party (LP) has criticised the state’s Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and his political party in Lagos, All Progressive Congress (APC), for taking over a decade to complete redline rail, recently commissioned, and into operation, despite that the ruling party has been in charge of the state’s affairs for 24 years.
It accused APC of not been able to develop an adequate transportation plan such that can address problem of mass transiting across Lagos for over two decades that the party has been running the state.
The Labour party indicated that Lagos state government ought to have put the redline rail into use long ago but that because APC is clueless, the project dragged for several years, faulting the timing and commissioning of the project.
From a statement released on Monday by the LP’s Publicity Secretary, Olubunmi Odesanya, the party also raised concerns on whether the redline rail would not also suffer like other investments that have been abandoned by the state government.
The party claimed that She further the cost for the project was yet to be made public, warning that it would be a disservice to people of the state if the project fails just like the ones before it.
It said: “We felicitated with residents on the commissioning of the Red Line Rail corridor with a call on the State government to ensure that the initiative does not suffer the failure of past investments in the transport sector of the city state.
“This is coming as the party faulted the timing of the coming on stream of the project, saying the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ought to have put the initiative in place a long time ago.
“Although, the cost for the project is still shrouded in secrecy and it would be a disservice to the people of the state if the project fails again like the ones before it” it added.
LP also said: “While we will like to felicitate with the people of the state on the coming on stream of the project as it is being commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today, we are however skeptical with regards to whether the project will be sustainable considering past efforts of the state government in the sector.”
According to the statement, over 15 million people living in Lagos metropolis, the state government which has been led by the same political affiliation in the last twenty-four years has failed to put in place an enduring transportation system that would sustain the population.
“We thank God that the officials have been able to pull this initiative through after many years in government but this sense of joy is further diminished by the fact that virtually all of such interventions in the sector in the part have failed,”.
“We are aware that the major concerted efforts at addressing the problem of public commuting started under former Governor Babatunde Fashola who decided to launch the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) scheme in March 2008.
“It is to his credit that a few big, luxury buses were introduced into the system which kept increasing ever since but eventually went under. The former governor also tried to improve transport infrastructure by creating dedicated lanes for these buses to operate.
“The state government also built several BRT terminals across the state which eventually became hideouts to criminal elements. In the end, the buses became unavailable as at when due and eventually out of circulation”.
It stated: “What Lagosian are demanding is value for money and how that can be achieved is through sustainability of the project like its counterparts across the world”.
