The students gave the ultimatum in a statement quoted by Daily Post as they lamented the deplorable condition of the expressway, threatening to shut down the road in a massive protest if the government fails to fix the road before the expiration of their ultimatum.
Nigerian students under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS), have given President Muhammadu Buhari a 14-day ultimatum to fix the Abeokuta-Sango-Ota-Lagos highway.
The students gave the ultimatum in a statement quoted by Daily Post as they lamented the deplorable condition of the expressway, threatening to shut down the road in a massive protest if the government fails to fix the road before the expiration of their ultimatum.
According to the students’ associations, “the road has now become a death trap and the hotspot of kidnappers and armed robbers".
They added that the safety of motorists and other road users, especially students of the various learning institutions located along the road and in Abeokuta, the state capital, is no longer guaranteed.
In the statement jointly signed by the Chairman of NANS in Ogun, Damilola Simeon and the National President of NAOSS, Oluwagbemileke Ogunrombi on Sunday, the associations lamented that “no fewer than ten lives have been lost lately in various road accidents that occurred as a result of the deplorable condition of the road.”
According to them, two students of the D.S. Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic were recently kidnapped by unknown gunmen along the road, as armed robbers and kidnappers have taken advantage of the poor state of the road to wreak havoc on unsuspecting members of the public.
They noted that the lives and property of motorists, other road users and residents of the area are no longer safe following incessant armed robberies and abductions being perpetrated by men of the underworld along the road.
The statement further read, “We are saddened by the insensitivity and wickedness of the Federal Government to subject residents of the state to untold hardships by not fixing the deplorable Lagos-Sango-Abeokuta road.
“For years, our people, especially thousands of students who ply the road on a daily basis have been going through hell.
“The road has become a death trap for motorists and passengers while their lives are also no longer safe in the hands of armed robbers and kidnappers.
”Not a week goes by without reports of accidents, armed robbery and kidnapping on the road.
“We are worried by these unpleasant occurrences and we want to call on the Federal Government to commence reconstruction of the road within the next 14 days, failure which the government will incur the wrath of the Nigerian students.
“We can no longer stand by and fold our arms while people continue to die on the road. The government at the top has failed our people woefully.
“The blood of those who have lost their lives on that road is on the hands of the Federal Government.”