Follow Us on Google
Sunday Ani
Residents and those who ply the Odofin Bypass, by Alakoso Avenue, Mile 2, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, are going through hell. The road that runs from Ijesha Express on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, up to Festac Link Road, is a death trap.
Daily Sun’s investigation showed that the road was constructed by the administration of Second Republic governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, as a layout to complement the Festac and Amuwo Odofin residential estates, with a link to Okota.
It was also gathered that, for the past seven years, the road has remained a nightmare to residents and commuters who pass through the place.
According to a business owner along the road, who preferred anonymity, there have been no major repairs on the road since it was constructed in 1982 or thereabouts.
“The only time anything happened on it was during Babatunde Raji Fashola’s administration, when he constructed a link road that joined the Alakoso Avenue to Ijesha by Oshodi-Apapa express road. The road was not originally linked that way.
“So, after the link-up, it became an alternative route to the perennial gridlock at Mile 2. The trucks that move to Apapa in their hundreds to load fuel have made Mile 2 perennially locked down, pushing the trucks to resort to the road for easy exit. And that has largely been responsible for the total collapse of the road,” he said.
He lamented that even as an exit and alternative to the Mile 2 gridlock, nobody has cared to maintain it in the last seven years.
He claimed that several appeals had been made to successive governments in the past, but none has yielded any positive result.
He said: “We have always cried out to the local government authorities but, each time, they tell us that it is a state government road. The local government has always made it clear that it lacks the capacity to fix it.
“However, we know that if the local government had taken proactive measures earlier, when we raised the alarm, the situation could have been better. It could have been managed. But nobody listened, and this is the result. The road is almost impassable now.”
The man said that efforts to sustain the continued usage of the road have been made by individuals, churches, companies and residents in the area.
“They have been providing palliatives but those palliatives are not working out because the major drainages are blocked,” he said.
On his part, Kunle, a businessman in the area, blamed the local government for failing to regularly clear the drainage along the road, which has contributed to the deplorable condition of the road.
“By all intent and purposes, it is the responsibility of the local government to clear drainages. So, if the drainages had been cleared when due, the road would not have been in this bad shape today. The damage would have been minimal,” he said.
When Daily Sun visited the site, workers were on hand to fill the gullies on the road with stones to make it passable. They were also clearing the gutters along the road, in a bid to salvage the bad situation.
According to Kunle, “What you see here is some kind of palliative being provided by good-spirited individuals around here. We are appealing to both the local and state governments to come to our rescue and fix the road. Failure to assist us in record time will paralyse not only the residents but also business activities around this place.”
Findings revealed that about four business concerns in the area are currently providing the palliatives, which include filling the gullies woth stone and clearing the muck from the drainage.
The situation has greatly affected businesses in the area negatively, as some companies that operated there have folded up due to the impassable nature of the road.
“A lot of tank farms and iron companies operate in this area and they use heavy-duty trucks. No doubt, the activities of the trucks have contributed more to the damage because of the heavy loads they carry but, naturally, a road that was constructed more than 25 years ago requires maintenance,” another source volunteered.
A commercial motorcycle operator, Yemi Balogun, lamented that his business was no longer as lucrative as it used to be due to the nature of the road.
“Before the road became this bad, I used to make N3,000 per day but, as it is now, I struggle to even make N1,500 per day. That is because passengers no longer make use of the road. Sometimes, a trailer would fall and block the entire road, making it impossible for us to commute. You can see that we even make use of the track meant for pedestrians because the road has completely failed. Most of the warehouses here are no longer in use because of the bad road,” he said.
A private security guard in one of the companies along the road said the pain of commuters and workers in the area worsens whenever it rains. “In the five years that I have been here, people have been suffering like this. One man just came up one day and tried to mobilise others to see what can be done to salvage the road and that is how the stone-filling and sand-filling plus the clearing of the drainage came about. We have been doing it but we can only ask government to join hands with us and ensure that the road is made accessible for people to use,” he said.
Similarly, a businesswoman, Alhaja Taiwo Ogungbo, lamented that the situation has affected her business so badly that her expectations have been dashed.
She said: “When I came here, I thought I would make high sales because the shop is along the road, but it turned out to be a mirage. We make very low sales; the profit margin is zero. It is frustrating. I am not getting what I thought I would get. No customer comes here because of the road. We want government to assist us as soon as possible. In fact, government should fix the road before the rain starts.”
A tricycle operator, Phillip Tunde, said he spent a large chunk of his daily earnings at mechanic workshops due to the nature of the road: “We don’t have rest of mind. We are always at the mechanic shop to fix our tricycles because of the damage caused by the bad road. Even the little money we make here all goes into maintenance of the tricycle. So, it is really terrible and we call on the authorities concerned to assist us to fix the road before it is completely closed.”
Efforts to speak to the Amuwo Odofin Local Government chairman failed as he was not on seat when our correspondent visited his office. Attempts to speak to the council’s information officer also did not yield positive result as he too was not on seat.
