Daily Trust - the online edition

Dualization of the evercongested Ibadan Abeokuta road will commence in 2009, the Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Kazeem Ayilara, has disclosed.

Speaking with journalists in Ibadan over the weekend, the Deputy Speaker expressed hope that the dualization project would form part of the 2009 federal budgetary allocation.

The Deputy Speaker revealed that "the Federal Controller of Works in Oyo State who was recently invited to the House, has assured of the Federal Government’s determination to dualise the highway with a view to decongest the noticeable heavy vehicular traffic along the route."

"In the same vein, the lawmaker representing Oyo South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Kamarudeen Adedibu, who was similarly summoned by the Oyo Assembly over the Ibadan-Abeokuta road dualization project, has promised to follow up the commencement of the project to a logical conclusion," the Deputy Speaker further said.

Hon. Ayilara expressed concern that government as well as private investors have been losing a lot of resources as a result of the perennial traffic jam that characterized Ibadan-Abeokuta road, virtually on a daily basis.

He however stated that the Oyo State Government had, in the interim, embarked on the opening up of the various access roads linking to the highway as part of efforts to decongest the heavy traffic.

Furthermore, the Deputy Speaker said the State Government has also directed the Chairman of Iddo Local Government Council, Hon. Isiaka Adesina Adeola, to, as a matter of topmost priority, open up all the access roads in the locality up to the adjoining Ogun State boundary, to serve as alternative routes pending the commencement of the highway’s dualization project.

While expressing the hope that "Oyo State would, in the next few months, wear a new look physically," the Deputy Speaker remarked that the N13billion Paris Club accumulated fund recently obtained by the State Government would be spent strictly on infrastructural development.

According to him, a large chunk of the fund will be committed to road development across the various local government areas of the state in addition to further improving the health sector.