The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, has urged motorists across to disregard the officials of the federal task force who have just been deployed on major roads in the state.
The governor on Tuesday, November 24, 2014 following the clash between officials of the task force and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA on Monday, November 3, 2014 .
According to Governor Fashola, the task force officials, who are part of the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P of the Presidency, had no business with controlling traffic on Lagos roads, he therefore urged Lagosians to ignore them.
The governor made this known during the fifth anniversary of Uniformed Voluntary Clubs held at the Ikeja Police College on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
He added that the task force is an illegal agency set up by the Federal Government few months to the 2015 elections in wanton desperation to win elections.
“The SURE-P task force has no right to manage traffic on Lagos roads. The only agency authorised to manage traffic in Lagos on the federal roads are LASTMA and the Federal Road Safety Corps. Citizens should just resist them and refuse to cooperate with them.”
According to Governor Fashola, money generated from the removal of subsidy and channelled into SURE-P should have been invested on the repair of dilapidated federal roads in Lagos especially the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
He said, “So you see how it has been improving our lives. The money should have been spent on roads; Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is one of them, that is where SURE-P money should have been invested not to dissipate it into political organisation in a very wanton desperation to win elections.
“This is the method that has been tried before, it was tried in 2006 and it did not produce any result. The result it produced was that they were roundly defeated. So, if you go into what does not work, we will not be provoked, we expect that in time, reasons will prevail.”
He added that the task force official were only loyalist of PDP politicians as they were often seen at the residences of PDP officials, doing chores. He, however, assured that they would fail again “as the former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, failed in 2006.”
Reacting to Governors Fashola’s statement, the task force had said they were not political but were only out to provide employment for jobless youths.
The task force coordinator, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Rafiu, claims that the officials had the right to be on federal roads and accused the state government of politicising the issue.
