Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has warned against illegal trading activities under the Apongbon Bridge, which was reopened to traffic on Saturday.

The bridge was damaged 15 months ago during a fire outbreak caused by illegal trading activities under it.

The fire weakened the major components and supporting pillars of the bridge, which prompted its closure for proper repair, resulting in untold pains for commuters and motorists transiting in and out of Lagos Island.

Speaking at its reopening, Sanwo-Olu said the work on the entire bridge has not been completed and warned people trading illegally under the bridge to leave to avoid such recurrence.

Sanwo-Olu said there are other bearings that still needed to be done on the entire stretch of the bridge going all the way to Alaka.

He added that there will be a very short closure for two or three weeks at different sections to jerk up the other parts of the bridge to complete it.

“We have completed the extensive work, there is still work that would be done. When you are driving on the bridge, you feel the impact, meaning there are still some junctions that need to be fixed, but we need to give you an immediate solution that is why we have to open this section now.

“The contractor would have to do a lot of road works under Apongbon and the surrounding roads, so, there is still a lot of work to be done. But we need to open the bridge to reduce the hardship being faced by commuters. This is a major infrastructure that we cannot afford to let anything happen to it again,” he said.

“We are warning again that there cannot be any form of trading, or activities under this bridge or any other bridges, these are important infrastructure, assets that we can’t fold our arms and let a few people destroy, we have seen the effect of this destruction, it caused the entire city a couple of months.

On her part, Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, Mrs. Olukorede Keisha, commended Lagos State government for collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Works to hasten up work on the bridge.

She noted that the reopening of the bridge was made possible because of the state government’s intervention.

According to her, comprehensive maintenance work had already started on Eko Bridge before the fire incident occurred, which caused the contractor to abandon work to focus on the damaged sections.

Meanwhile, Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit popularly called ‘Task force’, yesterday, said it was collaborating with the state environmental corps to ensure that street trading, especially under the Apongbon Bridge, which resulted in the fire outbreak and subsequent closure of the bridge, is stamped out.

Chairman of the agency, Shola Jejeloye, said the essence was to ensure sanity in the state.

“In furtherance of the state government’s commitment to stamp out street trading on the highways and other major streets in the metropolis, the state task force is set to clamp down on street traders and support other sister agencies in the enforcement of total ban on street trading in the state,” he added.

Jejeloye appealed to residents to collaborate with the state in achieving the vision of its mega city status as enshrined in the THEMES agenda, which stands for Transportation and Traffic Management; Health and Environment; Education and Technology; Making Lagos State a 21st Century Megacity, Entertainment & Tourism and Security and Governance.

He also urged commuters and pedestrians alike to refrain from patronising street traders as stiff punishment awaits both the buyer and seller once apprehended. (The Guardian)

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