Controversy
surrounding the management of the Lekki-Epe Expressway took a new turn on
Tuesday as the Lagos State Government announced the termination of its
concession agreement with the Lekki Concession Company.
Already, the state House of Assembly
has approved a supplementary budget of N7.5bn to enable the government to fund
the acquisition of the existing concession right of the expressway.
The LCC was mandated under a 30-year
Build, Operate and Transfer agreement to upgrade, expand and maintain the about
50-kilometre road (Phase I), and construct another 20km of coastal road (Phase
II) along the Lekki corridor.
But the firm and the state government
came under severe attacks when they introduced what the residents considered as
high tolls on the road in 2011 after significant progress was made in the first
phase.
The decision of the state government
to terminate the concession agreement, it was learnt, followed the lawmakers’
approval of the supplementary budget, which gave it the right to acquire the
existing concession rights and toll revenue benefits held by the
concessionaire.
Governor Babatunde Fashola had in a
supplementary budget proposal letter to the state House of Assembly dated
August 19, 2013, requested it to amend this year’s budget owing to unforeseen
developments in terms of the state’s internally generated revenue.
Fashola had said, “The proposal for
further amendment is largely predicated on the need to fund the acquisition of
the existing concession, right and toll revenue benefit held by the Lekki
Concession Company, the concessionaire for the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway.
This will effectively accelerate the transfer of ownership of the road to the
state, leaving the state with wider policy options with regards to that
important infrastructure.
“In order to address these issues, we
have proposed a two-prong approach namely: re-ordering some expenditure
provisions and also directing supplementation of the year 2013 budget. This
will entail an increase in the overall budget size by N7.5bn. This is against
the background of a projected shortfall of N22.5bn in budgeted internally
generated revenues, which now need to be covered by the additional borrowings.”
The Assembly gave its approval to the
request on Tuesday in a proposal read on the floor by the Clerk, Mr. Ganiyu
Abiru.
The commissioners for Budget and
Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze; Finance, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi; and Works and
Infrastructure, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, were at the House to defend the proposal.
Following the latest amendment, the
revised budget has thus increased from N499.6bn to N507.105bn.
Users of the expanded road have had
to part with different amounts, depending on their class of vehicles. The
amounts rage from N50 for motorcycles to N120 for saloon cars and tricycles;
N150 for Sports Utility Vehicles, minibuses and pick-up trucks; N80 for
commercial mini-buses; and N250 and N350 for light trucks and heavy trucks, and
buses with two or more heavy axles, respectively.
Fees are currently being collected at
the first toll point called the Admiralty Plaza.
The Conservation Plaza was built
about 10km away from the first tolling point bewteeen the Chevron Drive and
Oluwanisola Estate, but the collection of tolls has not started.
A human rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun
Olu-Adegboruwa, took the matter to court to stop the LCC and the state
government from enforcing the toll collection until the 10km alternative route
was constructed for those that might not use the road.
Calls and text messages to the mobile
phone number of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef
Ibirogba, were ignored; while the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Mr.
Hakeem Bello, said he had yet to get the details and promised to call back when
he did, but never got back.
Calls put through to officials of LCC
were unanswered, while text messages sent to them were not responded to.
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Society