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Daniel Tasks Religious Leaders Over Traffic Jam

Daily Champion
Kola Adepoju
5 Sept. 2007

Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State yesterday charged religious leaders whose spiritual activities on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway have been said to be the cause of frequent traffic jam on the axis "not to be a clog on the wheel of progress" by frustrating government efforts at addressing the situation.

Daniel gave the charge even as he disclosed that houses sited on river path would be demolished to prevent "bigger disaster" following the recent flood that ravaged the state. Daniel spoke while fielding questions from journalists and interest groups in the state at a live programme marking his 100 days in office on the state electronic media.

Reacting to question on the frequent traffic jam at the Ibafo/Iperu portion of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Daniel said his government had done a lot to address the problem by creating a trailer park at Ogere. He, however, regretted that despite federal government's approval of the trailer park, it has not fulfilled its financial commitment to the project.

While expressing his administration's plan to build another trailer park at Ibafo, Daniel said Ogun State was not rich enough to embark on the project adding "I can't use Ogun State money, I must get return on investment".

He however called in religious leaders whose spiritual headquarters are at the highway not to be "a clog at the wheel of progress" by aggravating congestion therein. According to him, "the incident of churches has clearly aggravated the situation (congestion) especially when they have all kinds of vigil and services".

"What we are doing is to show understanding but we must also include that our spiritual leaders, because they are also at the forefront of good governance, must not be a clog at the wheel of progress" he added.

Revisiting the recent flooding of the state, Daniel put the damage at N6 billion stressing that it has forwarded the bill to federal government for intervention. He stressed that the state was still waiting for federal government intervention since many channels have to be built.

Daniel explained that his administration would have done a little bit of the repair but he noted that it was imperative that federal government officials be on ground to see the extent of damage caused by the flood before anything could be done.

Besides, Daniel pointed out that federal government failure to refund the state financial commitment to Imeko/Ilara road has discouraged him from throwing state government money into repairing areas that were ravaged by flood. He, however, maintained that houses built on river paths would face demolition so as to avert bigger disaster in the State.

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