BY EMEKA MAMAH
As the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP and the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, struggle to make political capital over the rehabilitation/ reconstruction of the Lagos- Ibadan- Shagamu Expressway, the Ogun State Government has defied an order by the Federal Government asking it to release an excavator belonging to the  Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited, BCHSL, the Concessionaire handling the project to the company, which it reportedly seized forthwith.

The Federal Government had last month asked the state government to release the equipment which it allegedly seized from the company on the orders of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, warning about the alleged consequences of disobedience of the directive.
Bi-Courtney had complained to the Federal Government over the alleged forceful seizure of its equipment by Ogun State, and implored the former to intercede on its behalf by recovering the said equipment.

BCHSL won the concession to reconstruct and manage the toll road for 25 years under its Design Build Operate and Transfer, DBOT, arrangement based on the Public- Private- Partnership, PPP,  scheme of the Federal Government.

The Ogun State government was yet to comply with the directive of the Federal Government by releasing the excavator to its owners, even as the Special Adviser to Governor Amosun, Idowu Sawumi declined comments on the issue pointing out that every thing about the incident were already in the public domain.

However, there had been the argument that a project which runs through the ACN controlled states should not be executed by the PDP , hence the acrimony between the ACN governors and the Federal Government over the matter.