The Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Jumoke Akinjide, has put the blame for the heavy traffic motorists face daily in Lagos State at the doorsteps of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
According to her, when Buhari was the Head of State between December 1983 and August 1985, he cancelled the Lagos Metroline project initiated by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration to ease traffic in the metropolis.
The minister made the assertion in a statement on Monday.
Akinjide said by so doing, the then military ruler scuttled the opportunity for Lagosians to have a free-flow of traffic within the metropolis and by extension, the economic growth of the South-West.
She said the countries that were nowhere near the growth attained by the South-West when Buhari stopped the Metroline project, had since advanced to become world economic powers.
The minister recalled that the Lagos metro rail line was designed by the Jakande government to facilitate transport within Lagos and its surroundings but was terminated when the military toppled the Shehu Shagari civilian administration in a coup that saw Buhari installed as the Head of State.
She said, “The visionary Jakande administration had concluded all the plans to finance the project, putting everything in place for its successful execution. My father provided the legal frame work in his capacity as the Attorney General at the time, and the state government had deposited $50m after securing a $450m loan at six per cent fixed interest rate for 25 years”.
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