Minister for Trade and Investment Promotion, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has blamed the recent allegation by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) suggesting that President Goodluck Jonathan was unsympathetic to the plight of victims of the recent flooding in Lagos State on misinformation.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos on Monday night shortly after embarking on a visit to areas ravaged by the heavy downpour of July 10, 2011, Aganga, in disputing the assertion, stated that the number one citizen was sympathetic and was working with the state government to bring succour to victims.
Reacting to the assertion, he said, “I think there is miscommunication somewhere; the president is heavily involved in all this. As I said, the president is very sympathetic to the victims. The president has been involved; he has been following all the actions being carried out in the last two weeks.”
Aganga said the visit would serve the useful purpose of finding a permanent solution to the problem of flooding in the state, as the series of interactive sessions between the two tiers of government had come up with a useful plan on how to tackle the menace.
The visit, which took him to places such as Agege, Eti-Osa and parts of the Abeokuta express road was rounded up at Abule Oki Village along the Abeokuta road, where he had a brief encounter with victims, who called for urgent government attention.
On what the government at the centre had been doing since the incident, Aganga said, “You know that we’ve had flooding in Lagos for the past two weeks. Since then, we have been having discussions with the governor of Lagos State.”
According to him, the visit, which was prompted by President Jonathan, had achieved its aim saying, “The idea is to come on site now to see the extent of damage and the impact of the flood. We have gone to Agege, we have gone to Abeokuta express road and we have gone to Eti-Osa to see the impact on the coastal line.”
On his impressions, he said, “I think what happened is sad, but I know that based on the discussion I had with the governor of Lagos State, a lot of work has been carried out to deal with the issue and I think that things are under control, even though there is a lot to be done.”
Sounding optimistic, the minister told newsmen, “If all the projects that have been planned are fully implemented, the problem of flooding will become a thing of the past.”