PDP Guber Candidate Berates Sanwo-Olu For Test-Running Lagos Blue Line Rail

Lagos State gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olajide Adediran, has berated the governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for test-running Lagos Blue Line Rail, when the project has not been fully completed.

THE WHISTLER had on Wednesday reported that Sanwo-Olu led members of his cabinet, the State House of Assembly, and journalists to take the first trip aboard the electric-powered rail infrastructure, from the National Theatre Station to the station in Marina.

The test-run was for the first phase of the project, spanning 13 kilometres and extend from Mile 2 to Marina, covering five stations.

The project, which is part of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) being constructed by Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), started in 2010 under the administration of Babatunde Fashola.

However, it experienced some delays under the administration of Akinwunmi Ambode, before the current administration restarted it in 2019.

Olajide said that the test-run of the first phase of the project was a waste of tax payer’s money, adding that the governor should not expect Lagosians to rejoice after thirteen years that the executiion of the project has been delayed.

“As election season draws close, we see the APC return to long established habits of teasing infrastructural projects that are far from completion in the hopes of securing votes. We saw it in 2018 during the build up to the 2019 elections when the Lagos state government used a helicopter to surveil the perpetual gridlock at Apapa with the promise to clear it in one year following re-election of APC government.

“That photo-op is a silent witness of the half truths and failed promises of the APC in Lagos, in the same way Governor Sanwo-Olu’s deceptive ‘test run’ of the Lagos Blue Line will be referred to in years to come.

“Governor Sanwo-Olu rolled out red carpets and wasted tax payer’s money to ‘test run’ two stop stations out of the expected 12 stations that span the original plan of Lagos Blue Line, from Marina to Okokomaiko which now terminates at Mile 2.

“He surely doesnt expect Lagosians to rejoice after thirteen years of consistent delays in execution and waste of public funds. Test runs of infrastructural projects funfair was preceded by another funfair when the last beam was erected few months ago,” Olajide said on Thursday via his Twitter handle @officialjandor.

He insinuated that the test-run was a ploy to cover up the underperformance of the governor who he noted has nothing to show than raising the State’s debt profile from N542 billion in 2019 to N877 billion.

Olajide also stated that Sanwo-Olu has underdelivered on his campaign promises, adding that Lagosians should not allow career politicians to continue to deceive them.

He said: “These test run funfair was conceived to continually keep a face of performance by a government which has nothing to show for its almost 4 years in office, despite increasing the state local debt to N877 billion from N542 billion where he met it in 2019, leaving us to combined N1.43 trillion of both local and external debt.

“What value is this test run other than to pad Governor Sanwo-Olu’s track record, considering he has underdelivered on all his campaign promises, except the ones that serve the Lagos bourgeoisie, which are promptly executed and commissioned.

“We have no cause to celebrate government officials congratulating themselves for test running an uncompleted mass train project for Eko for show. The proof of the scale of this misrepresentation is there, go and visit National Theater next week to assess the situation on ground.

“We cannot continue to allow these career politicians deceive the poor masses any more. We cannot continue to accept crumbs packaged as progress. Lagos needs a breath of fresh air.”