Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has backpedalled on his words to solve Apapa gridlock in 60 days, saying he never said so and that he was being misquoted.
Addressing State House Correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday, the governor said he never promised to clear the traffic congestion in 60 days rather, he would review what had been done on Apapa roads in 60 days.
“Interestingly, some media houses have actually been counting down on me. They said that I mentioned during the campaign train that I was going to clear it in 60 days.
“I have mentioned it before, what I said was that in 60 days we would review what was done but that does not take the fact that even if people give you dateline, it’s because they want you to do well and they want you to be able to be accountable for those datelines,” he said.
Before he was sworn in as governor, Sanwo-Olu, had during an interactive session with his classmates at the Executive Master of Business Administration class, University of Lagos, 1998/2000 set at Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi in his honour, said he was determined to do the unthinkable.
“The Apapa trailer issue; it’s a campaign issue; it’s very serious. I’m going to take it very seriously. I believe that it is something that we are going to solve in the first 60 days of our government. Whatever is going to be required of us, we will take them out. There is a lot of politics being played around there. But no, it cannot be the way we’ll continue to live. We cannot continue to give excuses,” he said.
Also, during the governorship debate, organised by ‘The Platform,’ Sanwo-Olu and other contestants were asked what they would do in the first 100 days in office if elected governor of Lagos State.
He said he had identified 62 traffic gridlocks across the state which could be resolved within 60 days.
“Within the first 100 days, I will tackle the gridlock at Apapa. I will need to clear up all the traffic and all the trailers at Apapa. I’ll make sure it’s a nightmare we will not see again,” he said.