Construction work has begun on the 100-kilometre Ilara-Oja Odan road in Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on an inspection visit to the site yesterday, commended the pace of work and promised to construct an additional 1kilometre road linking the Ilara town to the neighboring Republic of Benin, as requested by the community during the inspection.

He reiterated the commitment of his administration to open up the rural areas through massive road construction.

He said access road was crucial to economic empowerment, hence the determination of his government to devote resources to the road subsector.

“You need good roads to get your farm produce to the markets within and outside your local council and state. Everybody needs excellent road network to save productive time, reduce stress, accident and other losses associated with bad or lack of access roads,” Amosun said.

The road, according to the governor, will be of Ogun standard, complete with median, drainage, among others.

“This is to guarantee safety of commuters and prolong the life span of the highway,” he said.
The people of Ilara in the neighbouring Benin Republic, who trooped out in large numbers to receive the governor, expressed gratitude to the Senator Amosun-led government for ending their distress.
The governor made stop-over visits to communities along the 100km highway and exchanged pleasantries with residents.

Amosun had earlier inspected the proposed international standard Lafenwa-Aiyetoro Road to have an overview of the Right of Way and other features that could be accommodated by the highway.

Eko Atlantic#:
Benin republic

Seme Border: Nigeria loses over N165bn annually to smuggling
FRANCIS EZEM November 30, 2012
It has emerged that Nigeria loses not less than N165bn through the increasing smuggling activities at the Seme Border, Nigeria’s line with the Republic of Benin, through which scores of arms and ammunitions flood the country.

Managing director of Global Scan Systems Limited, the service provider in charge of scanning goods at the border, Mr. Fred Udechukwu had recently raised the alarm over huge revenue leakages, which he attributed to the non enforcement of relevant bilateral trade agreements between Nigeria and other neighbouring African countries, which tend to leave the borders open to all manners of illegalities.

An authoritative maritime source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Nigeria loses over N165billion yearly arising from various trade abuses through the land borders, especially Seme, which is the busiest border station in the country.

According to the source, the Economic Community of West African States Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) has been bastardised and subjected by gross abuse by importers and other government security agencies, especially the Nigeria Customs Service.

The source noted that the scheme, which was basically designed to promote free movement of goods manufactured within the sub-region has been used as a vehicle to bring in even contraband items manufactured in Europe, Asia and America.

The source regretted that Customs has not done enough in checking these abuses, saying that it is unfortunate that the service, which knows the letters and intentment of the Legislation allows it be subjected to such level of abuse.

“If I should have my may, Nigeria will pull out of such agreements because they ave not really promoted made-in Nigeria goods among these neighbouring African countries rather it has turned Nigeria to a dumping ground for all manners of contrabands and even arms and ammunitions”, he regretted.

He warned that before going into such trade liberalization schemes, which unnecessarily exposes her to all manner of revenue leakages and loses, efforts should be put in place to sanitise the borders. The managing director of Global Scan had while commenting on the Destination Inspection scheme, had observed that there are high level of revenue leakages in the entire scheme, an indication that Customs might not be able to handle it if handed to it at the expiration of the contract.

“This is brought about by non-compliance with the various trade policies and bilateral agreements such as the bilateral agreement between Nigeria and Republic of Benin on transit goods, which states that goods on transit from Republic of Benin must arrive the country in their original form”, he noted.

According to him, this is presently not the case; as such goods are usually trans-loaded into specialised over-sized heavy trucks at the border posts and cleared far below their duty value.

In addition to implementing this agreement, he also canvassed the full scanning of consignments coming through the land borders for both security and revenue as against the current case whereby scanning is based on the selectivity of the Automated System for Customs Data.

He recommended that government should put in place measures to ensure that the existing scanning capacity is fully utilised, arguing that the current less than five percent utilisation of the scanners was anti-trade facilitation.

Mr McJay: @ Eko Atlantic, so, border towns shouldn't have good roads cos of smuggling? SMH.

#80million:
*speechless*
wait o,did i read right? Is the road in Benin Republic or the road leads there?
So why Benin Rep. peeps dey rejoice?
Is it an escape route or something? Somebody should please clear the air.

By the way...
BANCE is my player of the Tournament, AFCON 2013

babaowo: i wish he can award ishagamu road that links to ikorodu via cement company and pz company....

Mr McJay: @ Eko Atlantic, so, border towns shouldn't have good roads cos of smuggling? SMH.

lagcity: Na wa for Nigerian journalists. Dem still dey call the man senator ibikunle after he don become governor. Why dem no kuku call the president governor Jonathan?

seanet01: God bless ACN.
Thunder Fire PDP.

Exmay:


That is a Federal Road... It links 2 states together... It is not within his power to do such roads...

Idi Amin: Abeg hw does d road constructn affect me in PH here.:/

my_moniker: 100km road no be beans abeg...he try

Idi Amin: Abeg hw does d road constructn affect me in PH here.:/