Lagos govt must disclose amount it generates from tollgates – Bode George

A  former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, has dared the Lagos State Government to embrace open governance by revealing how much it generates from toll.

George said this was necessary since the state had become the personal fiefdom of one politician.

The PDP chieftain said this in a statement on Friday titled, “We Must Withdraw from the Brink”.

“George added, “How much is Lagos State earning from these two tollgates per day, per month, and annually? It is alleged that an estimated N400m is collected on both tollgates every day. If we are wrong, let them bring out their books and tell us how this humongous money is being spent.

“I have gone to this length to illustrate what could go wrong when there is a brazen interloper and a destructive tin-pot despot who has handcuffed the government of our state.”

He also called on the state government to prove that the son of All Progressives Congress leader, Seyi Tinubu, does not own or control the Lekki tollgate.

The PDP chieftain called on the Lagos State Government to do this by honouring Freedom of Information requests and revealing the terms of agreement between the Lekki Concession Company and the state government.

He said the state government must address allegations that Tinubu’s son and his former Chief of Staff, Sunday Dare, who is now the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, control the tollgate.

The PDP chieftain recalled that the state government had changed the terms of the concession years ago and paid off the LCC.

He, therefore, wondered why tolls were still being collected from Lagosians.

George said, “We are demanding that the Lagos state Government through the Freedom of Information Act publishes the names of those who are managing the tollgates.

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“We do remember however that there was a buy-back several years ago, returning the control and ownership of the Admiralty Toll gate to the Lagos state Government. The Lekki-Ikoyi Toll gate was built from scratch with tax payers’ money.

“How then can anyone/company inexplicably make a legal claim to the Lekki toll gates? Again, what is the relationship between Seyi Tinubu and Lekki Concession Company? Equally, what is the relationship between Sunday Dare and the Lekki Concession Company?

“We all know that Sunday Dare, until he became Minister last year, was Bola Tinubu’s Man Friday. There are too many untidy, dirty and stinking intimations here. That’s why we demand that the details of the tollgate ownership should be presented to the public immediately.”

The PDP chieftain argued that since the tollgate was the epicentre of the #EndSARS protests where unarmed demonstrators were shot, the state government should demolish it and erect a monument in its stead.

He said there was nowhere in the world where a single stretch of road would have two toll plazas as is the case along the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

George urged the Federal Government to tackle the tendencies towards nepotism and prejudicial preferences that are basically injurious to national unity.

He argued that the seemingly intractable clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the nation which are now more pronounced in the South-West could only be stopped with the outright banning of open grazing.

It is being reported that Tinubu’s son had admitted to only controlling the advert display boards at the toll plaza through his company, Loatsad Promomedia, while Dare had earlier in the week denied owning a stake in the Lagos tollgate company but said he was a director in the company owned by Tinubu’s son and had stepped down in 2017.

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