By Abiola Olawale
Chief Bode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday called on the Lagos State Government to release the names of the managers of the Admiralty tollgate and the Lekki-Ikoyi tollgate in Lagos.
In the wake of the shooting incident at the Lekki Toll Plaza exactly four months ago and the controversies that followed it, speculations have been making the rounds that Seyi Tinubu, son of former Governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare control the Lekki tollgate.
The PDP chieftain has now demanded the Lagos State government to debunk the claims by releasing the names of those that are managing the public assets.
This was contained in a statement titled, ‘We must withdraw from the brink’, released on Friday by the PDP chieftain.
George, a former military Governor of Ondo, in the statement, raised concerns about the relationship between Seyi Tinubu and the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), following the buy-back of the tollgates by the Lagos State government, years back.
He, therefore, called on the state government to address the speculations that Tinubu’s son and Dare, who was previously the Chief of Staff to the APC Chieftain are controlling the tollgates.
In his words: “We are demanding that the Lagos State Government through the Freedom of Information Act publishes the names of those who are managing the Toll Gates. We do remember however that there was a buy-back several years ago returning the control and ownership of the Admiralty Tollgate to the Lagos State Government. The Lekki-Ikoyi Tollgate was built from scratch with taxpayers 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, stinking intimations here. That’s why we demand that the details of the tollgate ownership should be presented to the public immediately. In fact 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 everyday. 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. This overbloated character is obsessed with the interests of the privileged few to the detriment of the majority of our citizens,” the elder statesman said drawing fury in his statement.
In the same vein, George appealed to the Federal Government to tackle the insecurity situations in Nigeria, especially Southwestern region of the country, to avoid ethnic jingoism.
According to him, the outright banning of open grazing is the solution to the recent reported clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Southwest.
George said, “The corralling and the ranching of cows are the model in Argentina, Brazil and all other beef-producing nations of the world. This is the time that President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrates a rallying unifying leadership to bring all our people together. Surely, this is not the time for ethnic or sectarian jingoism. This is the time for healing. This is the time to mend the broken places and rectify the pervasive wrongs.”
