The governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 General Election in Lagos state, Rhodes Vivor, has claimed that the Lagos Red Line commissioned by President Bola Tinubu recently was paid for by the Good Luck Jonathan administration in 2013.
The son of the late Nigerian jurist and former justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Bode Rhodes Vivor, stated this against the backdrop of the claim that the Lagos state governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu, was the brain behind the project. He described it as false and political propaganda designed to bring down tension arising from unbearable conditions of living in the state.
The LP gubernatorial candidate, Rhodes Vivor, in his verified X account state that “The APC has turned what was supposed to be a people-centric project into political propaganda laced with misinformation and false narratives.
“Therefore, I’m compelled to set the record straight. The fact is that the Lagos part of the standard gauge railway was first laid 125 years ago in 1898 from Lagos to Abeokuta before being extended to Kano.
“It remained a narrow gauge line from Iddo or Apapa to Agbado/Ijoko to Abeokuta for over a hundred years until the Jonathan Goodluck government in 2012 signed a contract with the Chinese to upgrade it to a standard gauge railway from Lagos to Ibadan.
“By 2013, there were already trains between Iddo/Apapa to Agbado/Ijoko with new coaches. Thereafter the Lagos state government approached the Federal government to use the federal line and instead of buying new railcars with guarantees.
“They bought two railcars that had been abandoned for 11 years in Wisconsin State, USA for an undisclosed amount (of course, you know what that means).
“Also worth mentioning is that despite the series of false claims by the Lagos state government, the signal office, for instance, will be staffed and paid by the federal government.
“The claim that they laid 5km of rail to connect the Federal government line to Marina when, in fact, it is part of the Blue line from National Theatre/Ijora to Marina metro line, whereby passengers will switch lines where they intersect, and not a continuation of the standard gauge line as falsely portrayed. Everything from lines to stations to signals and bridges or tunnels had been costed and paid for by the Jonathan Goodluck administration since 2013.”
Recall that on Thursday of last week, President Bola Tinubu formally launched the Red Line train project for the Lagos Mass Rail Transit (LMRT).
Currently in its initial stage, the project connects Agbado in Ogun State to the Oyingbo axis in Lagos State. Eight stations make up the 37 km train line: Agbado, Iju, Agege, Ikeja, Oshodi, Mushin, Yaba, and Oyingbo.
In his speech, Mr Tinubu promised that Nigeria would overcome its economic difficulties and said that there is hope for the future.
