The Chairman of the council Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, said this at the inauguration of revenue tarrifs and rate card as part of measures to ensure transparency, accountability as well as efficient and effective tax regime in the council area.
He said that the state governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), had since approved the plan of the LCDA to get the loan.
According to him, rehabilitation work has commenced on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), road to Jakande Estate Gate, Oke Afa and will be completed within the next six months.
“Also, as part of efforts to mitigate the effect of heavy rainfall as predicted for this year and reduce incidence of flooding, the council, in collaboration with the state government, has completed the dredging of Egbe Bridge downstream and upstream to allow for free flow of stream water,” Bamigbetan saidHe noted that the state of the roads was the major challenge the council was facing at the moment, stressed that the move to acquire the loan became expedient due to obvious lack of adequate funds in the council.
He explained that the council, in the last six months, had been lobbying the state government for the approval, which was formerly put at N524 million before the governor, subsequently pruned it down to N220 million.
According to Bamigbetan, the move is part of strategies aimed at solving problems of bad roads. “In Ejigbo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State which has been long overdue coupled with the fact that the finances of the council is insufficient to fix these roads, informed the decision of the council to seek the oan as well as introduce the Road Trust Fund project,” he stated.
He said; “Government business can never finish, it’s always ongoing and what we have decided to do is to fulfill all the promises we made to the people. Before the elections, we did an opinion poll of 65,000 residents and the consensus was that we should prioritize road construction and it was based on that that we were encouraged to pick 10 roads every year, so we did a summary of it.
“So, our business was to target the eight roads and the cost came to N524million, the rule is that any project that exceeds N35million, we have to seek the approval of the governor and that was what we did and when the governor looked at how much we earn through revenue, he didn’t want us to bite more than we can chew, and that was why he approved for us to get a loan not exceeding N220million and that means we have to now reduce the number of roads we can do this year to like five roads.
He listed the five roads to include: Double Star Road, Oke-Afa, Nurudeen Obe Street, Fadu, Kayode Double Powerline, Ifoshi, Rainbow Avenue Road, Ailegun and Jubril Olabisi Street, Aigbaka, all within the LCDA.
Speaking on the new rates card, the council boss disclosed that several thousands of eligible tax payers had been captured in the council tax net as part of measures to improve the revenue generation drive.
He therefore, appealed to all residents of the council area, particularly those who are well - to- do to support his administration by paying their various taxes as at when due.
and donate generously to the road trust fund, which was launched on Febuary 29th, 2012 at an event tagged the first economic summit.
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