Governorship Candidate for the People’s Democratic Party in Lagos, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has said his government would construct a light-rail system to unknot the traffic gridlock in Ikorodu and connect the town with other parts of Lagos.
On a visit to his paternal roots as part of his ongoing tour of all local governments in the state, Agbaje said he recognised the harrowing experience the people suffered daily trying to access other parts of the state.
Jimi hails from the Lasunwon ruling house, where his father, Prince Joseph Kosebinu, hailed from.
According to him, as part of the holistic solution he would be proffering to the problem would be the construction of a railway system to link Ikorodu with larger Lagos....continue
In reference to the road construction going on between Ikorodu and Ojota, he said: “This road that they have been constructing for all these years have been inflicting suffering upon the people of Ikorodu. It is not designed to solve the traffic gridlock.”
Agbaje said although the current regime in the state had embarked on some infrastructural developments, projects on ground were not commensurate with money reported to have been sent.
According to him, the last 16 years had seen the All People’s Congress (APC) and its precursor regimes collecting N4 trillion, which, he said, had failed to reflect in the achievements it has recorded.
He stressed that although the APC Government has achieved some results he said this has not impacted on the lives of the people.
As a result, he said most lagosians, could not boast of the basic things of life, including, potable water, free health and affordable housing, as promised by the ruling party. Agbaje also seized the opportunity to call on the people to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan and other PDP candidates.
Speaking at the event, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Babatunde Benson, threw his weight behind Agbaje’s candidature.
According to him, Ikorodu people had before now made it clear that they would only endorse one of their own as the next Governor of the state.
Benson who is the Asiwaju of Ikorodu assured Agbaje that Ikorodu was firmly behind his aspiration.
In the field of education, Agbaje accused the government of under-funding, which he said was why parents, disenchanted with the situation at the primary school level, opted for private schools.
He said that the primary school would receive much emphasis in order to improve the lot of teachers and pupils.
“They do not have enough teachers and yet those they have are not being taken care of. They even deny them leave allowances, just as they deny the civil servants serving in the state,” he said.
Government, he promised, would intensify building of houses for low-income class, reducing the cost of bureaucracy and through embarking on massive prefabrication of construction parts.
“It defies imagination that a government would exist in Lagos and it would refuse to build houses for the poor. And all they tell you is that there is no low-cost cement or iron-rods,” he said. “Did Governor Lateef Jakande build low-income houses for the masses or did he not?”
He said that government would provide land to developers at rock-bottom costs so they can construct low-cost housing to the people.
His words: “When you remove the cost of land from construction, a lot of money has been saved. According to a World Bank study, Lagos State is Number 36 on the cost of building out of 36 states in Nigeria. But we are saying that we are going to change it to Number One out of 36. When you remove that government charge, the cost of housing will come down.”
Promising that development would be evenly spread in the state, he decried a situation where the present government concentrated development on the high-brow areas of Lagos.
“You must create Victoria Island in Ikorodu, Victoria Island in Epe, Victoria Island in Badagry and Victoria Island in Ajah. So that the infrastructural developments drawing people to Ikoyi can be found in Ikorodu,” he said.
According to him, a PDP government under him would bring succour to market women and traders, and stop the daily charges of up to N1,000 imposed on traders.
His said: “The APC people see shopping complexes wherever they see markets. We will retain your traditional markets, and where we want shopping complexes, we will go to new sites.”
However, he charged them to ensure they armed themselves with their Permanent Voter Cards, in order to effect the change they desired, “if you want to ensure that I become Governor of Lagos State.”
Speaking in Ajegunle, Alhaja Safuratu Abdulkarim described her principal as the one to lead Lagosians from bondage, expressing confidence that he would implement the lofty programmes he promised.
“Jimi Agbaje is the Moses that will deliver us from the hand of the Pharaohs,” Mrs. Abdulkarim said.
The PDP team drew applause when he said in Apapa that government would intervene in healthcare through a system whereby government would pay for people consulting doctors of their choice.
