Esther Oladipupo
Residents of ita-Oluwo, Ajegunle, Muti, Imagbon road have lamented over the abandoned road in their communities which is now littered with gullies and potholes.
One of the residents, Mr. Adekoya stated that the Ita- oluwo road has been an embarrassing and a huge hindrance and that many vehicle owners have abandoned their vehicles while other alternative routes are being created.
A commercial motorcyclist, Jide Olaolu* said that he has stopped driving because the road had damaged his bike and made his business suffer loss. He also added that pain relief drugs are what help him to sleep at night because of the backache, headache and body pain he experienced daily while riding on the bad road.
The Baale of Ajegunle Igbarako community, Moshood Agbolade Dawodu, also confirmed that this road when completed will come out at Arepo and Lagos Ibadan expressway.
He said, ” Before I was enthroned as the Baale of this Community, l was the first CDA Chairman from 2003- 2007. Most of the work here is due to the effort of the CDA. This road was last worked on in the early eighties as an industrial road meant to cater for the companies around the Odogunyan axis”.
The Baale however expresses great disappointment at the way the government of both Lagos and Ogun treated the issue of this road.
According to him, “commercial activity is suffering as goods and services are now in short supply because of the inaccessible road resulting in constant increases in practically all consumer items. This also led to the incessant rise in the prices of commodities.
” The Fact that Ita Oluwo, Ajegunle, Muti, Ereko, Magbon, Elepete road is a boundary between Lagos and Ogun State is not helping the matter. He pleaded with the government to please save our lives and the businesses here.
Another business owner, Mrs. Folake Favour said many office workers are scared to take their vehicles out because they could end up spending their salary fixing them.
“Even luxurious cars, jeep, Hilux vehicles are not spared in this malady. Many shops have been locked down and are still shutting down daily. This continues to paralyze business activities in this axis,” She added.
The Chairman of Progressive Community Development Association {CDA}, Fatai Lawal said having spent nineteen years in the community, that he has never felt the impact of government intervention.
“Everything you are seeing here is the frantic efforts of the goodhearted people of the community. During the election, we have politicians from both Lagos and Ogun state since we have polling units from both states, they will promise us heaven and earth but after the election, we don’t see them again.”
Government Responses
The commissioner for works in Lagos state said that they are aware of what we are facing but they cannot promise when they will come and do it because of funds for now.
Also the house of representative members representing the Ikorodu constituency, Honorable Babajimi Benson was sent a letter which he acknowledged. He sent his team of engineers but he promised to only do the one within his constituency fund. Recently, two women were on a commercial bike, one of them who was pregnant, fell from the bike, which led to premature/ stillbirth and the child eventually died while the other one got
