Members of the organised labour in Ogun State, led by the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday marched on Sango- Ota section of the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.
They protested the worsening condition of the road.
The demonstrators were joined by residents and traders in Sango-Ota, who rued the daily hardship the deplorable road had subjected them to.
The protesters, led by the state NLC Chairman, Emmanuel Bankole, bunched up and formed human barricade on the Sango-Ota road in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government, stretching from Joju bus stop to Sango-Ota bustling garage area.
This caused gridlock, as motorists, commercial motorcyclists and pedestrians cursed and yelled at one another in frantic moves to escape the traffic jam.
The organised labour promised to shut down the state if construction work doesn’t begin on the road within 21 days, from October 6.
Bankole said the union decided to show its displeasure over the continued negligence of the road by the government after the visit of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.
Recall that Fashola, during his recent visit to Ogun State, said the Federal Government was committed to tackling the deplorable Sango-Ota/Abeokuta expressway.
He said the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road was inherited from the previous administration, with the first contract awarded in the Year 2000 to the tune of N6billion.
The minister lamented that N56billion is needed for its completion today.
The protesters yesterday demanded that the federal and state governments should find a solution to the deplorable road, threatening wrath if they failed to yield to their demand.
They carried placards with inscriptions such as: “Repair our road with immediate effect or face the wrath of the masses”, “400% hike in transport fare due to bad road”, “Our roads are death traps fix our roads”, “No good roads, No payment of tax”, “Our taxes are meant for fixing road so what happened” and “Industries in Ota are relocating and closing down due to bad roads.”