• Pregnant women left to die at bank of canal
• Enraged residents, elders carpet govt over insensitivity
By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Six years after the then governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, was pulled away from his breakfast table on a Sunday morning in 2017, by a report in the Sunday Sun that detailed the trauma of residents of Alonge-Awoja Island in Ijagemo-Kupodo area, Iba Local Council Development Area, the people are still in lamentation and sorrow, with their plight worsening every year.
The residents have been suffering from monumental losses occasioned by cyclic flooding that invades the community for months during the rainy season. This happens when the canal that has almost encircled the settlement overflows, making the raging flood to flow into the Island because of the concrete blockage erected under the Obadore bridge by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company, CCECC, the contractor that constructed the LASU-Isheri Dual Carriageway that runs from Iyana Oba to Isheri, linking with the Idimu-Egbeda-Iyana-Ipaja Road.
The dual carriageway currently witnesses a high volume of traffic of haulage trucks from Ojo, Alaba, and Badagry, transiting through Egbeda or Iyana Ipaja and heading out of Lagos through Oregun to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Whenever heavy rain falls and fills the canal, the flood cannot flow in the normal course. Instead, it will back up to Alonge Awoja Island and flood the whole community, sacking people from their homes. The excessive flooding is now causing massive erosion in the community.
One of the residents, who works in Ikeja and requested not to be identified, recalled what transpired six years ago.
He said: “The situation of the community was published in the Sunday Sun newspaper. The governor saw it and was touched. He sent a team from Alausa that same Sunday morning to come here to see things, to ascertain the veracity of the story. When they came here, they met some of us and told us the reason they came. We took them round the community. They went back and reported to the governor. Then one week after a team of engineers and surveyors came to the community, to survey it. When we saw them it gave us hope that something would be done about the problem.
“The then governor promised that he would do the road in the next budget year, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen because he did not get a second term ticket. If he had received the second term ticket and returned as governor, probably the problem we have now would have been solved long ago.”
Again, the Sunday Sun in another report in 2021 revisited the issue of the worsening ecological problem created by the man-made canal and its impact which is making the residents gnash their teeth and agonise over the financial and psychological pain of the havoc wreaked on them by prolonged flooding every year.
Pregnant women in labour dies
Beyond forcing the residents to abandon their homes to seek refuge in Obadore and other nearby communities, the flooding has claimed the lives of some women, two of which happened when a pregnant woman went into labour and could not be quickly taken to health facilities in Obadore due to lack of a concrete bridge over the canal to create access to the community.
After a recent downpour, Sunday Sun visited the community again. During that visit, the traditional head of the community, Mukabisiriyu Awoja, who represented the Baale of Ijagemo Town, Chief Jimoh Olateju Balogun Awoja, could barely speak without stammering as he seethed with anger at the impact of the flooding.
After regaining composure a bit, he said: “Oga see, something dey happen for this community. One pregnant woman went into labour here. The woman had no strength to walk. Somebody suggested that she should be carried on the back. One man tried to carry her. The woman was pregnant with twins. The twins died in the womb. This thing happened last year, 2022.
“Again, four years ago, another pregnant woman began to bleed and there was a need to rush her to the hospital. Somebody was shouting my name, saying, ‘We need wheelbarrow oo – to carry her across the canal to the Obadore side.’ Before we could reach the footbridge, the woman died. If there was a concrete bridge and a road in this place, she would have been taken to a hospital. Oga, this thing dey pain me too much.
“I want to beg Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, our Senator, and other political leaders in Lagos, I want to beg all Nigerians to help us in Alonge-Awoja Island, Ijagemo Kupo-Odo in Iba LCDA. Our suffering and agony are now unbearable. Our women and children are dying. I beg the First Lady of Lagos, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu to beg her husband on behalf of the pregnant women who die here in labour because there is no access road to our community, which is surrounded by a wide and deep canal. We want a solid concrete bridge and a road into the community.”
For over 20 years, Mukabisiriyu had been living on Alonge Island, long before he was appointed as the traditional head of the community by the Baale of Ijagemo.
Like several other residents who have lived there for a long time, he painfully recalled the days of glory of the place and gave an insight into how the flooding problem started.
“In the past, our parents used to farm in this area. They used to plant cassava, maize, and different vegetables. This place was a fertile, arable land that was very good for the cultivation of food crops. I had been living here long before Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola became the governor of Lagos State.
“At that time, there was one very small, narrow stream which was like the boundary between us and Obadore in Alimosho LGA. Our part is under Iba LCDA.
“The Fashola administration decided to dredge the stream and turn it into a wide canal to serve as a channel for flood water from other parts of the metropolis to flow into the lagoon and empty into the Atlantic Ocean. There was no issue at the time until CCECC started construction of the LASU-Isheri road during the Fashola administration.
“That was when we began to observe early signs of flooding in the community. We were worried that the flood water would not recede long after the rains ceased. Through investigation, we traced the source to the Obadore bridge built on the LASU-Isheri dual carriageway.
“We found out that the construction company erected a concrete blockage, to control water flowing past the place when it was building the pylons that carry the bridge. After the bridge was completed, the Chinese company did not properly reopen the concrete blockage. They left it in place on the claim that the bridge would be compromised by erosion if the concrete blockage was removed. Instead, CCECC created a narrow channel for water to pass into the lagoon and flow outwards towards the Atlantic.
“After the canal was created, the residents built a wooden footbridge to enable them to cross the canal. It has been in use for 24 years.
“From time to time we repair it by adding fresh planks and a wooden platform on which we walk. When the planks that are driven into the floor of the canal and the top of the platform rot, the footbridge becomes rickety and unsafe to use. So, we repair it,” he said.
The Baale told Sunday Sun that some people had died in the place because of injuries sustained when they stepped on the rotten parts of the platform. The jagged edge of the planks would tear their legs. In some cases, the wounds were so severe that the legs became gangrenous and lead to death as the infection spread to other parts of the body.
He said that one particular woman had been confined to her home for about eight months because of the injury she sustained after falling off the footbridge.
“The injury was initially small, but became worse when the wound would not heal. That was when it was discovered that she had diabetes.
“The wife of my father has also been bedridden as a result of the injuries she got because of the footbridge. I am simply disturbed that people came here to buy land from my community with their hard-earned money, then they suffered to build their houses, but today they are not able to enjoy living on their property because of the flooding. No, that should not be, at all. That is why we want the Lagos State government to come to our aid and build a concrete bridge for us across the canal,” he pleaded.
In an earlier interview, another son of the soil, Taofeek Alonge, told Sunday Sun: “The agony of the people will only come to an end when the passage is widened more to allow the large volumes of flood-water empty into the lagoon and outwards to the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly. We want the government to build a road that will pass through the community to Ijagemo and all the way to Jakande Housing Estate.”
This desire resonates with the Chairman of Alonge-Awoja Island, Chief Abayomi Tonade, who is into printing business, and has been living in the community for close to 16 years.
High cost of building houses
Another major negative impact of the absence of an access road to the community is the prohibitive cost of building houses in the place.
This has affected the physical development of the community, Tonade said, explaining: “Before building in this place, we practically go to hell. When you buy a tipper of sand or granite for N50,000, you will use about N60,000 to pack it into the community. We drop it where Community Road, Obadore, ends at the bank of the canal that surrounds Alonge-Awoja Island. The community road starts at the Obadore bus stop, off the LASU-Isheri dual carriageway.
“When you buy cement, you also drop the consignment at the same place. And hire load carriers (mallams) to bring the cement into the community. That is also how the sand and granite will be packed into the community with used cement bags. In doing so, some may fall into the canal and that is wasted. To cross the canal with a canoe we pay N100 per person, even if you are going out three or four times per day.
“We have been suffering this for more than 10 years. We cannot use commercial motorcycles; even ordinary wheelbarrows can hardly move easily on the wooden footbridge which is rickety and rotted at several points. We have to keep adding fresh planks to make it usable to some extent. On countless times people have fallen off the footbridge into the canal. You need to see the plight of our young children who have to use the footbridge to go to school in Obadore. They have to cross the canal to Obadore, where commercial motorcyclists will take them to Obadore bus stop.”
Seeking refuge after flooding
Mrs Esther Balogun is a caterer, who has done reasonably well in the 20 years she has been in business. Five years ago she bought about three plots of land in Alonge-Awoja Island and built two units of three-bedroom bungalows with more than enough space that can take a block of flats in the future. But today, Balogun has a tale of woe.
“I am very sad and unhappy with the situation of the place. To watch flood water take over your compound, come into your sitting room and other rooms. It is disheartening. I have lost a lot of household property. When this happens, our men wear boxer shorts, put their trousers on the shoulders, and hold their shoes in their hands, to cross the flooded area, to get to our boundary with Obadore, where they will dress properly before taking commercial motorcycles to Obadore bus stop.
“This is what we experience every year. When the place becomes flooded, many of us relocate to Obadore, to stay with people for about a week or more for the flood to recede. There was a year I was trapped in my house for three days. The flood covered the compound, but did not come into the house. The perennial flood forced the only chemist shop in the community, which served as our primary healthcare centre to close down. The dispensary was often flooded. He was so depressed and frustrated that he closed the place because there was no road and it was flooded for weeks and months.
“In this place, there is only one canoe. Everybody has to be in a queue to use it. You can wait for three hours before it will get to your turn. You cannot jump the queue. Children who have to go to school are always late to school. The same thing for workers. The canoe can only carry two adults at a time. Only four young children can be carried in the canoe in one trip across,” she said.
Abandoned by family
The story of Mrs Justina Ikhide from Delta State, who is 70 years old is quite pathetic.
She has been practically abandoned by her children who rarely come to visit her because of fear of falling off the footbridge to the canal.
She bemoaned her circumstance, saying: “The problem in this place has turned me into somebody who has nobody. I have been living here for more than 22 years. The thought of crossing the canal on the wooden footbridge fills me with dread. I am an old woman, I am scared to use the shaky footbridge. I am now here alone, I live alone in my house. Even my grandchildren don’t want to come. When I started building my house, this place was dry land and there was no problem of flooding at all. It was a Ghanaian builder who dug the foundation for me. It was very deep, and we did not see water while digging the ground. So, it was solid ground. Then one day we started seeing flood water come into the community.
“We tolerated the problem initially, but then the problem continued to grow until it overcame us to the point of driving all of us the way from the community. Whenever it happens like that and the community is flooded, we will leave our house. As it is now we cannot use shovels to dig up our house and move the building to another place.
“Old women fall into the canal while trying to walk on the footbridge. There was a day one woman was trying to come out of the canoe, she slipped and fell into the canal. I started to scream and call people to rescue her. She managed to hold one piece of wood so that the water would not carry her away. Some men then rushed to the bank of the canal to rescue her.
“I am so scared to use the footbridge now because I have fallen into the canal on several occasions. In the past, every year my grandchildren would come here to spend Christmas with me, but now they are not coming again because they said that they can’t come to this place because their parents will not allow them to come here that is flooded. Now, I eat my food alone in my house; my children are not coming. I cook my food and eat alone. That is the lonely life that I am living here because of this problem.
“Recently, the government dredged the canal to more than seven feet deep. How can we cross the canal in a canoe that is not balanced? When we want to go out we are so scared because anything can happen on that footbridge. At my age, I should have somebody staying with me and helping me, but because of the flooding and the footbridge, my children cannot find somebody to stay with me because this place is very boring for them. No light, no keke, no okada, no road. When my children send me money, that is another problem. How will I go to collect the money from POS people across the canal? Please, sir, help us beg Governor Sanwo-Olu to remember us.”
Neglected by the government
It is generally accepted that government is a continuum. That is why another graduate resident who runs a business in Obadore is deeply pained that the Sanwo-Olu administration seems to have ignored the worsening problem in Alonge Island.
His words: “The Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration neglected us. That is why we have been suffering for over six years. Despite all our efforts to draw the attention of the government, it has been insensitive to our plight. I can say that the government has demonstrated contemptuous neglect of the problem we face in this community.
“The primary purpose for the existence of a government is to see to the welfare of the people. The government acts as if we do not matter. If this problem had happened in areas prone to violence like Mushin, Oshodi, Ajegunle, Lagos Island, Agege, I am sure the government would taken steps to solve the problem and prevent it from sparking violent action by the aggrieved residents. But because we are peaceful people, the government simply ignored us.
“The only way to gain access to the community is the wooden footbridge across the canal. Now the footbridge is dilapidated. We are levying ourselves to rebuild it. You can see the terrible state of the footbridge. It has been a serious issue. Most of the time when the children are going to school we are always scared because anything can happen.
“Then again, to rush women who are pregnant is a scary experience. We have to use a wheelbarrow to carry the women across the canal on the footbridge to Community Road on the Obadore side.
“The alternative is to use a canoe to cross the canal at the narrowest point. The canoe can only carry two adults at a time.
“Not all of us come from riverine areas and know how to swim. We are living in fear. We keep praying to God not to allow any major emergency that will require mass evacuation. How are we going to leave this place?”
“When Governor Sanwo-Olu was campaigning for his second term, his slogan was Greater Lagos Rising, which resonated with most Lagosians. The Lagos of today should be a modern Lagos. Our community is part of Lagos. We are not supposed to be in a Lagos where we use a wooden footbridge to get into our community. What we need is a concrete bridge across the canal and a solid asphalt road that leads into our community from Obadore and runs through it to connect us with Ijegun and Jakande-Isheri roads.
“We want to be part of the new Lagos, the Centre of Excellence, Lagos that wants to become a mega-city. Imagine a situation where diplomats from any of the European embassies in Lagos visit this place to see our situation and make video recordings of what they will see, they will wonder about the boast of the Lagos State government of being the Centre of Excellence. What impression would that make on the diplomatic official? That would be bad for the image of Lagos.
“In my candid view, the government is treating us with contempt as if we do not matter. What the government is doing to us is unconscionable; this neglect is unconscionable. Our area is a link between Obadore in Alimosho Local Government and Iba LCDA in Ojo LGA. Also, through Ijagemo to Ijegun-Isheri to Jakande, you can easily connect to Oshodi through Isolo or Mile 2 through Okota. So, you can see how important we are, but the Lagos State government is totally blind to this fact
“Our desire is that the government should mobilise to solve this problem quickly before something worse happens.
“You would be shocked to learn that the community is connected to the national power grid. What is Ikeja Electric Plc doing? This place has existed for 30 years and yet there is no public power supply to the area.”