THERE was confusion, on Thursday afternoon, in Sango Ota area of Ogun State, between the Ogun State governor, Chief Gbenga Daniel and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole, over the inauguration of the Sango Bridge.

The Speaker was said to have been angry and questioned why the Minister of Works, Senator Sanusi Daggash, inaugurated the bridge before his arrival

Trouble was said to have started when the Speaker, who was said to have been visibly angry that the bridge had been commissioned by the minister, forced himself into the waiting vehicle of the governor and prevented the governor’s bus from riding on the new bridge.

The security aides of the speaker and the governor, while trying to protect their bosses, engaged one another and the event turned out to be a rowdy one as everybody ran for cover.

The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Sina Kawonise, who said he was in the bus, informed that it was the governor that gave a directive to one of his aides that the bus door should be opened for the Speaker when he saw him approaching it.

Kawonise told the Nigerian Tribune that the Speaker asked Daggash why he had to inaugurate the bridge before his arrival.

“So you have invited me here to embarrass me, ehn?  So you have the gut to cut the tape before me? This will be your last assignment,” Bankole reportedly told Daggash.

Bankole was said to have turned to the governor and said, “who the hell do you think you are? You have commissioned the bridge before my arrival, how could you do a thing like that?”

Reacting to the confusion, the Speaker refused to talk on the issue, saying “No, no, no. I wasn’t locked out of anywhere. A bridge was commissioned and that is what I want to say. There was no fracas among supporters. That is what I want to assure you.”

Speaking further on the power play between himself, Daggash and Governor Daniel, Bankole said “No, there was no any power play between me and anybody. I only had a discussion with the governor and the minister in the bus. I wasn’t late to the commissioning. My interest is to make sure that there is Federal Government presence in Ogun State and that is what we managed to do to ensure the completion of the Ota Bridge, which was commissioned today.

“Apart from that, I am not really interested in any other thing that went on there. I am just glad that the commissioning was done and I am looking forward to more projects being commissioned in the state.”

When asked to talk on the allegations that he dragged the key of the bus with the driver, Bankole, again, said “Ah! No, no, no, no such thing.”

In a reaction, the state Commissioner for Information, Sina Kawonise, said the event was slated for 2.00 p.m but the speaker did not show up until 5.00 p.m. when the project had already been inaugurated by the minister.

The speaker, according to him, entered the bus where the governor and the minister were seated and moved to assault the driver.

The commissioner, however, said he was not aware if the speaker was actually invited, adding that the project was not a constituency project which required the presence of the speaker but that of the Federal Government.

Daniel, in his address, had earlier told the gathering that the project was the initiative of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that “the project was conceptual and commenced by Obasanjo and we are happy that it was in his presence that the project is inaugurated.”

The Works Minister, Daggash, in his address, said the Ota bridge project, which had been pending for eight years, was inaugurated after much ado.

“I am very happy; we have reached the conclusion of the second phase by commissioning the bridge today. The third phase in addendum will commence very soon and it will not witness the challenges the second phase witnessed.”

Daniel, however, said the flyover linked two strategic federal highways, the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway and Idi Iroko highway to the Republic of Benin, adding that “in the course of my administration, the Federal Government completed the dualisation of the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway and also extended a link from Obada Oko Adigbe.”

He added that the major challenge for road development in all tiers of government was funding, adding that the “Federal Government has embarked on reform in this sector and has sent a bill to the National Assembly for the establishment of the National Road Fund and the Federal Roads Authority.

“We support these initiatives, which will provide a permanent solution to the challenges of funding road programmes in the country,” he added.