Insurance: Lagos State to spend N3.9bn to replace 80 BRT buses burnt during #EndSARS
The Lagos State Government will spend a whopping N3.9 billion to replace the 80 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) busses burnt by hoodlums during 2020 #EndSARS protests in Lagos.
This is because Lagos state government cannot file for insurance claims on the mass transit buses because there was no extension on the policy covering the buses.
Details of the cost of the affected BRT buses showed that 23 of the burnt vehicles in Ojodu Berger area of the state cost $200,000 each, while 57 of them at the Oyingbo cost $100,000 each, when converted into Naira, all totaling about N3.9 billion.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotosho had explained in a statement after the protest that with the current foreign exchange rate, the 80 destroyed BRT buses are now valued at N3.929 billion.
According to him, vehicles were purchased in dollars; so, the consistent decrease in the value of Naira is expected to edge the cost of these buses up, when denominated in Naira.
Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu in an interview on Channels Television recently said insurance premium paid on the vehicles did not have extensions that cover losses from protests, riots, and civil disturbances, adding that the government would replace the vehicles.
The governor said the process for replacement has commenced “In fact, we have started the conversation. The interesting thing is that we are working with a local bus manufacturing company and it is going to come with almost the same specification as the ones that were unfortunately destroyed.
“They were insured but insurance will never cover you 100 per cent. These are beyond insurance; they are like natural disaster or events like arson or riots, which are not covered. These are like unforeseen, unexpected incidents.”
The governor noted that the inter-city rail network being constructed by the Federal Government inspired the intra-city project in Lagos.
“For us, it is to seize the opportunity, build the rail infrastructure, go line-in-line with the NRC in some places; we need to build our terminals and sidelines; we need to have a joint communication strategy with them and we need to build overpasses such that we can have intra-city network from Oyingbo to Ebute Meta to Yaba to Jibowu to Mushin to Ikeja to Agege to Ijaiye and finally to Agbado.
“So, while the Federal Government is taking people out of Lagos to other parts of the country, we are keeping our own traffic that is internal to Lagos,” he posited.
Sanwo-Olu said the government had also acquired 20 boats with 50-passenger, 40-passenger and 30-passenger capacities.
“We are connecting the entire Lagos also with waterways,” he stated.
The governor also explained that the government did not intended to render operators of the Yellow Buses, popularly referred to as ‘Molue’ and ‘Danfo’, noting that they would partner the government in running the new metro projects.
“We need to collaborate; we need to engage. These are important stakeholders. They have served our citizens; they have served Lagosians for so long in time. They yellow buses have become the paint of Lagos. Let us see how we can remodel them,” he added.
