Jonathan hypocritical over railway revival - APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of hypocrisy over his persistent claim of reviving the railway “when in actual fact he has bluntly refused to grant the necessary right-of-way approval to the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) for the construction of its redline light rail project from Iddo to Ifo in Ogun State with a capacity to carry one million passengers per day.”
The APC said investors are ready to invest over one billion dollars in the project.
In a statement in Lagos, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that in failing to grant the approval, which has been pending since May 2013, President Jonathan premised his action on the fact that Lagos is an ‘’enemy state.”
His words: ‘’President Jonathan is simply being hypocritical when he listed the revival of the railway as part of his administration’s so-called achievements, during the kick-off of his electioneering campaign in Lagos, and during which he also tried to project himself and his party as friends of the South-west in general and Lagos in particular. His words and actions since assuming office six years ago do not support that
‘’He claims to have revived the railway but did not tell Lagosians how he has stopped, in its tracks, the LAMATA Red Line Light Rail Project that would have alleviated the suffering of Lagosians as they commute daily across the densely-populated city, not to talk of the loss of over 30,000 jobs that would have been created by the project.”
APC said there is no stronger indication that President Jonathan holds the Southwest in general and Lagos State in particular in contempt than his failure to grant the right-of-way approval for this project, considering its massive benefits that include ease of transportation, the decongestion of the city, the creation of at least 30, 000 jobs and the attraction of huge investments that the project, if approved, would have brought to the state.
‘’What about the new economic activities that would have been generated along and in the vicinity of that corridor of the new rail line if the president had granted the right-of-way approval? If indeed Mr. President is now a convert for economic growth and progress of Nigerians of all tribes who live in Lagos, as he pretended to be during his electioneering campaign flag-off, he should grant the approval today,’’ the party said
It said contrary to the image of friendship with the South-west in general and Lagosians in particular, which the president sought to project during his electioneering campaign in Lagos, he has nothing but contempt for the people of the region.
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