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Lekki-Epe road: Stakeholders call for commission of enquiry

By on September 24, 2013

Amidst the controversy surrounding the buyback of the concession rights of the Lekki-Epe Expressway by the Lagos State Government, stakeholders have called for an independent commission of enquiry to probe the deal.

The stakeholders, who spoke to our correspondents on Saturday and Sunday, condemned what they termed the secrecy surrounding the concession arrangement and the subsequent buyback of the rights of the Lekki Concession Company.

Motorists and other users of the road, who spoke with one of our correspondents, condemned the continued collection of tolls on the road, despite the fact that the state government would now bear the cost of constructing and managing it.

A human rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, described the entire transaction as fraudulent and called for a public commission of enquiry to, among other things, determine how much the LCC had made on the road; how much the state government would pay the concessionaire and the people behind the company.

Similarly, some residents of the area, who called for a probe of the concession and its subsequent buyback by the state government, described the entire transaction as suspicious.

Sources at the governor’s office told one of our correspondents that the government was making efforts to raise a N25.3bn bond to finance the buyback, adding that the government would pay N15bn to LCC as the cost of shares, N6.8bn to service the loans taken by the concessionaire, and N3.5bn to settle third-party liabilities.

However, Adegboruwa alleged that some leaders of the state, both present and past, were using the buyback option to exploit the people of Lagos, adding that in actual fact, there was nothing like a buyback of the concession.

He said, “The Lagos State Government is not buying back the concession, but some people are using the instrumentality of the government to rescue the LCC from its incurable liability on a failed project.

“I call on the state House of Assembly and the Action Congress of Nigeria (All Progressive Congress) leadership in the state to prevail on the state government to be transparent with the people on the concession.

“They should not use government apparatuses to push the people into slavery. Who are the owners of the LCC that will collect N15bn for a failed project?”

Our correspondents gathered that the concessionaire could have been making an average of N33m from toll collection daily from the Admiralty Toll Plaza, the only functional one for now.

However, this figure could not be independently verified as officials of the state government and LCC refused to comment on it.

An official of the LCC, Mr. Charles Imevbore, told one of our correspondents that the state government had said everything that needed to be said on the buyback and that the LCC was a special purpose vehicle solely for the actualisation of the project.

According to him, the LCC workers are still working and collecting tolls on the road, while the emergency rescue and accident recovery services introduced on the road are functional.

Adegboruwa, however, advised the state government to dismantle the toll plazas already erected and take the road as one of its statutory responsibilities of providing social infrastructure for the people.

“The governor is on his way out of office and he should not leave a legacy of a state in economic quagmire. Lagos is among the highly indebted states in the country; there is no reason for this at all. Public infrastructure should not be left solely in the hands of profiteers,” he said.

 

 

[Punch]