FORMER Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu started reconstructing the Ago Palace Road from Ago Roundabout to Apple Junction that connects FESTAC. Babatunde Fashola completed it and gave the place a face-lift befitting the many estates, from Ago to Amuwo Odofin. That construction is one of the legacies of Tinubu and Fashola that people in the area savoured and celebrated until recently.

Now, under your watch as state governor, the area is being destroyed by tanker drivers largely through corruption perpetuated by state authorities under your watch. Suddenly, trucks are everywhere from Ago to Amuwo Odofin.

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 The menace became manifest last year. It’s horrible now. State authorities, under your watch, shut their eyes to decency and approved the many tanker terminals in the area. Doing that in a purely residential area is corruption. And this is being done under your watch. From Ago Roundabout to FESTAC was probably a journey of about 20 minutes. 

Now, sometimes it takes more than one hour. Tankers are responsible. If they are not turning, re-parking or breaking down on the road, they are double-parking, sometimes blocking the entire road for minutes. They have taken parts of the road as their parks. A businessman who has 30 tankers, for example, buys a few plots of land that can only contain about 10 tankers.

 His drivers park the rest on the road. That is the story of Ago Road, leading to Apple Junction in Amuwo Odofin. The tankers are there, right now. They have occupied the good road Tinubu and Fashola constructed for the people and they do so with impunity under your watch. Just like Okada riders from states where they have banned them have found safe haven in Lagos under your watch, the tanker drivers want to reduce Ago to Amuwo Odofin to another Apapa, a once beautiful area now bizarre following the occupation of tankers. Although Apapa’s problem started long before you came into office it got worse in the past few years.

Apapa once ranked next to Ikoyi in serenity and many expatriates preferred to live there. There was good life in Apapa. Now the place is almost a slum, businesses shut, properties devalued, all by the menace of tankers. It is the same thing they want to visit on Ago and Amuwo Odofin, under your watch.

 Along the Ago Palace Way leading to Apple Junction are Greenfield, Lakeview, Star Times, Divine, Victory among other estates. They are purely residential areas but now being taken over by tankers under your watch. Residents of Greenfield Estate protested a few days ago. Nobody heard their cries. Certainly, this is not how to make Lagos City Of Excellence. 

We know that you mean well for Lagos. And we recognise some of your achievements. However, you need to check the degeneration in some parts of Lagos. Ago/Amuwo Odofin must not be turned into another Apapa. Those terminals can be relocated and parking tankers on the road Tinubu and Fashola governments constructed for the people must be saved from the destruction the tankers will surely cause if not STOPPED NOW.