Residents, market unions, youth groups and various cultural groups on Friday, March 5, 2021 took to the streets of Agege to celebrate the inauguration of the Agege Flyover.
As early as 9:00 am, various cultural groups mostly youths in different clusters danced under the flyover and in various adjoining streets.
Various tents were erected around the Iju bound lane under the bridge intersection bearing names of various lawmakers representating the area, council leaders and market groups with the supporters colorfully dressed.
Security was beefed up on the bridge where the governor was to perform the inauguration. However, the celebration spread there as visitors were screened in by security operatives.
The event was attended by the speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, who was escorted to the event by all the 40 lawmakers representating various constituencies.
The Master of Ceremony taking a roll call of all the lawmakers one after the other gave them the opportunity to greet the people of Agege one after the other.
Obasa who represents Agege constituency dressed in the same African print popularly called Ankara with other All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftains, leaders and supporters who were all in high spirits.
The arrival of the governor brightened celebrations.
The crowd went into a frenzy with the arrival of the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Sen. Bola Tinubu, as shouts of “Jagaban!” rent the air.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructure, Mrs Aramide Adeyoye, while taking her opening speech, listed recently inaugurated projects which demonstrated the administration’s commitment not to leave any division behind in its road construction and regeneration drive.
Adeyoye announced that “by the grace of God we shall be inviting you soon to yet another commissioning of the completed Ariyo (Mile 10), Ira-MuwoIra-Muwo Bridge in Ojo Local Government Area”.
She said the Agege flyover project would boost investment, support businesses, promote economic development and ultimately improve the socio-economic well-being of Lagos residents.
“The Pen Cinema intersection as you all know is one of the busiest in Lagos, given its conflicts around the six major routes leading into it. namely Abule Egba, Ogba, Agege Oja, Iyana Ipaja, and Iju,” she said.
The special adviser said that the project was embarked upon to tackle the daily gridlock in the Agege axis, with thousands of motorists spending hours with the accompanying travel inconvenience, loss of productive man-hours resulting in trauma and stress.
“The solution to this traffic transportation problem was conceived in September 2017 in the construction of a flyover across the Pen-Cinema intersection in addition to the spur linking Old Abeokuta Road.
“This landmark project aside changing the skyline of the area would indeed ease traffic gridlock tremendously.
“The project in its entirety consist of a dual carriageway 1.4km, Flyover Bridge component with 2 lanes of 3.65m width each in either direction with ramps, including the rehabilitation of five adjoining roads,” she said
She commended Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s commitment towards the delivery of strategic link roads and bridges in line with the State Strategic Transportation Master Plan (STMP) and THEMES developmental Agenda.
Also, the Chairman, Agege Local Government Area, Mr Ganiyu Egunjobi, while delivering his message of goodwill, renamed two major roads after the National Leader of the APC and the governor of the state.
Egunjobi said that the “benefits of having the bridge constructed are enormous” and he thanked the Sanwo-Olu administration for completing the project.
He also thanked Tinubu for laying the foundation for progress in the state and renamed the Old Ipaja Road to now bear Bola Tinubu Road.
He also renamed Dopemu Road as Babajide Sanwo-Olu Road while thanking residents for their patience and understanding during the period of construction of the flyover.
The 1.4kms bridge with ramps constructed from precast/pre-stressed reinforced materials was awarded in January 2018.
The Agege Pen Cinema flyover was conceived to transmit vehicular traffic across intersections at Agege to tackle gridlock on the axis.
By Grace Alegba and Florence Onuegbu
