Agbowa-Ikosi sawmill ready July – LASG

The ultra-modern sawmill being constructed by the Lagos State government at Agbowa-Ikosi in Ikorodu area will be completed and ready for occupation by July this year, the government said on Thursday.

The project, christened “First World Communities,” is designed to serve the needs of the Oko-Baba saw-millers who would be expected to relocate from their present untidy slum in Ebute Metta overlooking the Third Mainland Bridge, to Ikorodu upon the completion of the site.

Facilities being provided for the comfort of the saw millers and allow for their smooth operations at the Agbowa-Ikosi site include a 500KVA transformer and restaurant; a 250 unit band saw shades; 250 unit of sales offices; meeting hall, toilets; car and trailer parks, network of roads and cart tracks, green buffer zone and open spaces, shoreline protection and log preparation area.

Meanwhile, six associations plying their trade at the Oko-Baba sawmill have faulted a suit filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos challenging their planned relocation to Agbowa-Ikosi, a suburb of Ikorodu, by the Lagos State government.

A group, which described itself as Timber Dealers/Sawyers, and Towing Vessel Owners, had through its lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, filed a suit on behalf of the stakeholders in Oko-Baba asking the court to restrain the state government from relocating them to Agbowa.

But addressing journalists on the issue, representatives of six associations said apart from the fact that they were not contacted before the suit was purportedly filed on their behalf, they equally had “no reason whatsoever to stop the good intention of the state government from coming to fruition.”

The associations are Lagos Mainland Sawmillers Association, Association of Planning Machine Operators, Association of Engineers comprising Turners, Welders, Blacksmiths and Rewinders, Wooden Turners Association, Carpentry and Furniture Association and Photo Frame Association.

Abdulganiyu Onikeku, president of saw-millers association, told journalists alongside executives of other associations that, those who purportedly filed the suit lacked the interest of the generality of stakeholders at heart, adding that the ultra-modern sawmill under construction at Agbowa was the first of kind in Africa.

Recalling how it all started, Onikeku said he was at the time the general secretary of the association when the idea of relocation started, saying the project was first mentioned by former Lagos State Governor, Lateef Jakande in 1979.