Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has urged motorists across the state not to cooperate with officials of the federal task force, who have been deployed in major roads in the state.
There have been concerns over the sudden taking over of Lagos roads by officials of the task force as the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, had been the agency in charge of traffic in the state.
Fashola said the task force officials, who are part of the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, of the Presidency, had no right to control traffic on Lagos roads.
He, therefore, urged Lagosians to resist them.
Fashola spoke during the fifth anniversary of the Uniformed Voluntary Clubs held at the Ikeja Police College on Tuesday.
He described the task force as an illegal agency set up by the Federal Government few months to the 2015 elections in a desperate attempt to win elections.
He said, “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 the governor, money recouped from the removal of subsidy and channelled into SURE-P ought to have been invested on dilapidated federal roads in Lagos especially the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
Fashola added that investment in the task force was contrary to the assurances by President Goodluck Jonathan that the subsidy would be used to improve the lives of Nigerians.
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”.
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