Ibadan flyover barrier demolished by truck, driver in Police custody

The barrier over the Mokola, Ibadan flyover  bridge has been pulled down. It was demolished by a vehicle which hit the barrier at about 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon.

The driver of the truck has been arrested and detained by the police.

However, in a statement  issued by the State Ministry of Works and signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Mr. Kayode Adepoju, government said it was interesting that only a few weeks ago, the opposition in the state had threatened to pull down the barrier.

He said the ministry of works was working on the theory that the barrier had probably been demolished over night and the carcass was left hanging only for it to be hit by the oncoming truck.

According to the statement, about three weeks ago, government had alerted the public, through a press statement, of the plan by the opposition to demolish the barrier.

In the release, broadcast on the state Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), the government alleged that it had received security report to the effect that some political thugs had been commissioned by the opposition to demolish the flyover's barrier which the opposition claimed was an indication that the bridge was substandard.

It would be recalled that former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, had in an interview with a radio station in the state capital, attacked the construction of the bridge as unnecessary.

Senator Ladoja, in the said interview, also told the whole world that the bridge, constructed by the CCECC, an international construction company, was substandard, as well as queried the cost of construction of the bridge.

A few weeks after the interview, Mr. Lanre Ogundipe, one of Senator Ladoja's aides, had published an advertorial in one of the national dailies, in the name of an anti-corruption agency, calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to look into alleged financial misappropriation in the said bridge construction.

The state government immediately sued the said Ladoja aide for what it called his libelous allegation.