Henry Okonkwo and James Ojo Adakole
The coming of the rains, with the attendant flooding, has worsened the precarious situation of people in several communities in Lagos, who have been contending with the agony caused by abandoned road construction projects in the affected areas.
When the Lagos State Government flagged off the Agric-Ishawo dual carriageway road project in Owotu, in Ikorodu West Local Government Area, hopes blossomed among the residents. Unfortunately, the road project was abandoned shortly after works started and it has now become a nightmare for residents of the area.
The situation is such that whenever rain seems imminent, residents are gripped with fear and concern that the resulting flood would sack them and make it difficult to access their homes. Coupled with this is the sudden jump in transport fares.
Located in the popular Agric bus stop area in Ikorodu, Owutu is made up of several communities, namely, Asolo, Ishawo, Ojokoro, Agbede, Ori-Okuta, Igbo-Olomu, among others.
When Sunday Sun visited the area, most of the residents were seen trying to meander through portions of the flooded road. Most commercial motorcyclists dread plying the road due to the tortuous experience they often go through trying to navigate the bad portions of the road. The few who undertake to convey passengers charge very high fares.
The road project which runs all the way to Arepo in Ogun State was abandoned shortly after the immediate past governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, lost his bid to secure a second term ticket during state’s All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial primary election.
During an extensive inspection of projects in Ikorodu, the former governor had promised that the projects would be delivered between March and April this year “as part of efforts to make the suburban areas in the state economically viable and livable, thereby making life comfortable for residents and boosting the gross domestic product (GDP) of the state.”
However, the promise was never fulfilled. “Agric-Ishawo road is so bad that vehicles using that road invariably retire to a mechanic’s workshop at the end of every journey especially anytime it rained. Transporters are hurting commuters with high transport fare. Before now the transport fare was N100 from Agric to Ishawo but the transporters currently charge N300 to Ishawo or even more,” Ganiyu Olaitan, a resident of the area told Sunday Sun.
He added: “The community leaders have done their best, but that did not amount to anything. We the residents of Agric-Ishawo and its environs are appealing to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to come to our aid as a matter of urgency, to provide immediate palliative measures. The abandoned road has led to loss of properties, extended travel time and high transport fares.”
Another resident of the area, Kazeem, a technician, vented his anger over the poor state of the road: “It would have been better if the construction and demolition did not start at all. If the government knew that it was not ready to embark on the project, why start in the first place only to abandon it halfway? This road is causing a lot of problems for residents. Transport fare from here alone to the junction has skyrocketed since the roads became worse. I am meant to go out today but I cannot do that with the hike in transport fare. It used to be N50 from here to Agric junction but it is now N100 to N150. Had it been the government officials also reside in this area, they would have felt our plight.
We are really suffering here. The road has damaged a lot of cars because there is no alternative road. So, we are begging this government to come to our aid and fix this road as well as put up a good drainage system for us. This is what we can benefit from them. We are only pleading with the government.”
Opeyemi Akande, another resident of the area, also decried the politics being played over the road. He told Sunday Sun: “Immediately Ambode lost out at the APC governorship primary, the road was abandoned and since then, it has been like this.”
Just like Ikorodu, many other Lagos communities that grapple with flooding challenges have had their agonies further worsened by various unfinished state government projects within and around their communes. The hopes they had when some of these construction activities kicked off have since turned sour and dimmed because of the torture they experience.
Residents living in Ifelodun, Omidire and Adeshina areas all in Bariga axis of Lagos agonise whenever it rains. According to them, their houses become flooded and their roads impassable because of the uncompleted drainage projects in their neighbourhood.
The residents said that the projects, which were kick-started in 2017 by the immediate past governor were meant to tackle the flooding in Bariga and its environs. But the project has been abandoned for several months now. “The drainage project considerably reduced the challenge of flooding in some communities,” Chief Waheed Olodunni Agiri, the Baale of Orile-Bariga town, told Sunday Sun during a chat in his palace.
“The drains were constructed from Ladilak to Adulugbin, then from Okuta road down to Bariga road. It ameliorated flooding in those areas of Bariga, but it however, worsened the conditions of some other communities like Ifelodun, Omidire and Adeshina. This is because the contractor was supposed to channel all the water from Abule-okuta, Ladilak, Bariga town into the Bajulaiye canal, but they stopped work at Igbogunu roundabout around CMS Grammar School junction. And this has created problems for residents around there.”
Another resident in Adeshina area, Mr Collins Adejaye, lamented how the unfinished project has compounded their sufferings and expose them to several health hazards. “Those of us that live near Adeshina bus stop by Olorunkemi street are the worse hit whenever it rains. Everywhere becomes impassable because of the flood. Flood water from other parts of the neighborhood all flow into our houses and roads. And this exposes us to epidemic and malaria because of the mosquitoes. Please we beg the new governor to help us bring back the contractors to complete their work by channeling the water and extending the drains to Bajulaye canal, so that all the floodwater from the drains would flow into the canal. Please Governor Sanwo-Olu, help us.”
Other Lagosians suffering similar fate are residents of the area around the Km 3 Idimu-Isheri-Igando LASU road. When you stop at Rosellas bus stop, and move into the community, you will not only be struck by the suffocating stench from the dumpsite, but also notice the murky, swampy state of the entire area. According to the residents, their plight with flooding started when the state government established a dump site there without creating a proper drainage channel.
One of the major victims of the flooding situation, Prince Abraham Ololade, the manager of the Rosella’s Amusement Parks and Events Center, narrated to Sunday Sun how he has lost everything to the flood that now plagues the area. “We’ve suffered from flooding in this place for almost 20 years. It all started when the dump site was established here. This place was a level land until the state government started dumping refuse without proper planning on how to channel the floodwater. As result of this, homes get flooded whenever it rains.
We wrote to the fomer governors of the state – Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and Ambode, during their tenures, appealing to them to solve the problem. Fashola during his time, and through his Commissioner of Environment, Muiz Banire, approved a re-channelization project. The project was called Rosela’s Re-channelization Project. The aim was to channel all the floodwater into the abattoir canal.
But unfortunately, the project didn’t fulfill that objective rather it worsened the situation. I don’t know why the project failed. Whether it was properly done by the engineers or not, I can’t just tell. You can see how we suffer both during and even after each downpour. I have always begged the government to relocate us but nothing came out of our pleadings. I have lost several millions of naira because of the havoc wreaked on us by the flooding. The flood destroyed over 25 of my speaker boxes. I had to lay off 20 of my workers because the flood destroyed my venture.
Governor Sanwo-Olu should help us. We wrote countless petitions to the past governors but nothing has happened. At a time, Ambode invited us for a meeting but months after till he left office, nothing much came from the meeting.”
Aside residents, road users like commuter bus drivers and pedestrians also suffer the pain from the unfinished road projects in Lagos. Drivers plying routes like Bolade in Oshodi, Trade Fair, Ojo Barracks, Volks, Iyana Iba and Okokomaiko also complain of the unfinished road works littering the areas. According to many of the commercial drivers, they suffer a lot especially during rainy season due to the fact that the road was partly constructed.
The drivers and other road users also called on the government to take action and ameliorate their plight. “I begin my day very early in the morning ferrying passengers to Badagry,” said Mr Sunday Nnaemeka, a bus driver that operates from Mile 2 to Badagry. “I suffer a lot especially during rainy season, and the road contractors worsen our woes by abandoning the road repairs. Hence the roads get flooded with rainwater, thereby becoming impassable. There are so many potholes which really damage our vehicles.”