The concrete barrier over the Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo State flyover bridge has been pulled down.
It was brought down by a vehicle which hit the barrier at about 2.30pm on Tuesday.
The driver of the truck has been detained by the police.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Mr. Kayode Adepoju, the state government said it was interesting that only a few weeks ago, members of the opposition had threatened to pull down the barrier.
He said the Ministry of Works was working on the theory that the barrier was demolished overnight and the carcass was left hanging only for it to be hit by the oncoming truck.
According to the statement, about three weeks ago, the government had alerted the public, through a statement, of the plan by the opposition to demolish the barrier.
In the release, broadcast on the state Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), the government alleged that it had received security report to the effect that some political thugs had been commissioned by the opposition to demolish the flyover barrier which the opposition claimed was an indication that the bridge was substandard.
It would be recalled that former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, had in an interview with a radio station in the state capital, attacked the construction of the bridge, saying it was unnecessary.
Ladoja, in the said interview, said that the bridge, constructed by the CCECC, an international construction company, was substandard.
He also queried the cost of construction of the bridge.
A few weeks after the interview, Mr. Lanre Ogundipe, one of Ladoja’s aides, published an advertorial in one of the national dailies, in the name of an anti-corruption agency, calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to look into alleged financial misappropriation in the said bridge construction.
The state government immediately sued the aide for what it called his libelous allegation.
