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Tag: Third Mainland Bridge

  • Nigeria to spend N270 billion on bridges – Fashola

    Nigeria to spend N270 billion on bridges – Fashola

    Nigeria’s Power, Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday said Nigeria will spend about N270 billion over three years for the rehabilitation of 50 bridges in the country, following the decay of many of the existing ones.

    The government plan to start with about N70 billion to N100 billion in year one, Fashola said when inspecting the rehabilitation of Lagos Ring Road Bridge Abutment and Approach to the Third Mainland Bridge project in Lagos.

    He said government would start work on “very critical ones’’ so that the bridges do not collapse before moving to the less critical ones.

    “Many of the bridges we built in the country over the last four, five decades have not been under any form of maintenance.

    “We now have a three-year plan affecting over 50 bridges across the country for maintenance, repairs and restoration,’’ Fashola said.

    The minister directed engineers to begin work to realign the Apongbon bridge.

    He said some columns and beams of Nigeria’s longest bridge, Third Mainland, were threatened because of human activities, sand filling and ecological factors which resulted in erosion.

    “The work we have come to inspect was awarded some years back when there was an indication of some mis-alignments here on the Lagos Outer Ring Road which is the beginning of what leads on to the Third Mainland Bridge itself which is just about here.

    “And it is being caused by erosion, sand filling and other activities. This road has moved as a result of some sub-soil displacement,’’ Fashola said.

    He said that the project which was slowed down by funding would be completed in November.

    He decried indiscriminate parking and trading activities in some parts of Ebute Ero toward the Third Mainland Bridge.

    Fashola warned that government would take action soon.

    “I want to appeal to those people who use those areas as car parks and trading to start moving voluntarily in their own best interest.

    “We intend to repose our right of way while work is going on on the Outer Marina to free traffic,’’ he said.

  • Police foil attempts to bomb Third Mainland Bridge, suspect arrested

     

    The Nigeria Police Force says it has arrested one Abiodun Amos, aka Senti, a suspected member of a militant group allegedly planning to blow up the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State.

    Investigations revealed that the suspect, known to be a bomb expert, had participated in several robbery attacks and kidnappings in Lagos and Ogun states.

    The police recovered from the suspect two Ak-47 rifles concealed in a bag and a vehicle loaded with dynamite and detonators were recovered in his hideouts around the creeks in Majidun.

    The office of the National Security Adviser to the President was said to have provided the intelligence report that led to Amos arrest.

    The report was said to have been passed onto the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who directed the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, led by ACP Abba Kyari, to go after the group.

    A police source who prefers to speak on condition of anonymity said Amos was a top commander of a militant group, which had been terrorising communities in Lagos and Ogun states.

    The source said, “The suspect is a member of a militant group operating from the creeks of Ikorodu and Arepo areas of Lagos and Ogun states. The police got an intelligence report from the office of the NSA that Amos and his gang members wanted to blow up the Third Mainland Bridge.

    “The group was trailed to a river bank in the Majidun area, where the suspect, an expert in explosive, was arrested. Two Ak-47 rifles hidden in a Ghana-Must-Go bag were found in his possession and he led operatives to a vehicle parked discreetly within Ikorodu, and a large cache of dynamite and detonators were recovered from its boot.”

    In his confessional statement, Amos, who hails from Arugbo in the Ese Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State, reportedly told the police that his gang was frustrated by the military operations against pipeline vandals.

    The 43-year-old said his gang went into kidnapping after the bombardment of the creeks, adding that the botched attack on the bridge was initiated by the overall ringleader identified as General Ossy.

    “We went into bank robberies and kidnapping because we wanted to get government’s attention and all we wanted was for them to grant us amnesty and offer us pipeline protection contract. We have made several appeals, but the government is not listening to us.

    “General Ossy said if we didn’t blow up the Third Mainland Bridge, government would not listen to us. We had concluded plans and we decided to carry out the attack by November ending. I am the group’s explosive expert. We were about going into the creek to conclude plans on how to carry out the attack when I was arrested.”

    The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Don Awunah, confirmed the arrest and seizure of the explosives, saying investigation was ongoing.

    He said, “An arrest was made of an individual. While the police operatives were pursuing another one in a vehicle, he abandoned the vehicle and ran but he was tracked down. Some explosives were discovered in the vehicle and two Ak-47 guns were recovered from him.”