Residents of Olaoluwa Community Development Association, Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have lamented the deplorable state of their road, which they said had been in a state of disrepair for over 30 years, leaving commuters stranded, businesses struggling and schoolchildren exposed to danger.
During our correspondent’s visit to the neighbourhood yesterday, residents complained that the road had become impassable during rains, making transportation difficult, since they had to hike from the nearest bus stop to their homes, the PUNCH writes.
They also complained that the region was not accessible to commercial motor cycles and tricycles.
The community’s chairman, Moses Adeola, said members had tried multiple times to convince the authorities to fix the road, including writing letters, capturing films of the state of the road and appealing through radio stations, but their efforts had yielded no results.
“We have been calling on the authorities to come and help us for over 30 years, but nothing has been done,” Adeola added.
The road, he said, was a significant route linking multiple settlements, and its awful condition had resulted in accidents involving residents being taken to the hospital.
Its poor condition often results in pregnant women being taken to the nearest general hospital across the road, only to tumble off motorcycles. Similar things happen to people with medical emergencies being sent to hospital, including mothers in labour,” he said.
Adeola said pupils found it difficult to travel to school when it rained, stating that rains a few days previously had made the road unusable and left locals without an alternative route.
He claimed the community had written multiple emails to the authorities and sent videos of the road to the local administration and even made appeals through radio stations.
“We are now helpless and we need the government to come to our rescue,” he added.
The CDA chairman further accused the local authority of putting collection of shop permit payments above the hardship posed by the road, saying some businesses had been closed up despite the difficulty dealers had in recruiting customers.
“Shops are opened but customers are hardly coming because of the state of the road. Even with that, officials still come and lock up your business over shop permits,” he said.
The former chairman of Prestige Community Development Association, now Ultimate CDA, under the Olaoluwa CDA, Oluwokiti Ephraim, said that residents and people have tried to fix the road for approximately three decades without result.
The road leads to a general hospital and its terrible condition was particularly harmful for pregnant women, asthmatics and children during the rainy season, he said.
“The state and local governments have come to the area, they have recorded videos of the road and they have left, but we have not seen any intervention yet,” Ephraim added.
He said the road has greatly affected transport since the commercial motorcycles and tricycles cannot longer ply the road.
‘Those coming from the motorway had to halt at the junction and walk to their destinations. “If you want to transport goods, you have to carry them on your head because there is no motorbike to help you,” he remarked.
Ephraim noted that this may be especially challenging in situations at nite, when vehicles risked breaking down while trying to navigate the damaged route.
He called on state and local governments to help, saying the community couldn’t fix the road without government assistance.
Another resident, Doris Alaba, who claimed to have lived in the village for almost 20 years, similarly narrated her experience with the road, saying she once slipped into a water-filled pothole while trekking to work.
She added the road condition also affected her travelling arrangements while she was planning to travel to the United States on November 18 last year.
“An Uber driver could not come into the community to pick me up. “I had to get some young men to help me carry my luggage to the bus stop before I could get a vehicle to take me to the airport,” she stated.
She said “The road has affected commercial activities. Many shops have closed down because customers cannot easily access the area.
“Now there is no market, many shops are locked up. “When the road is in such a hazardous condition people cannot come into the community to buy goods,” she remarked.
Alaba also voiced concern over the safety of school pupils, stating several had fallen into water-filled potholes during the rainy season, with some cases reported around late July and September.
Residents often had to pay people to take their products from the bus stop to their homes because commercial cars, motorbikes and tricycles were not allowed to enter the community, she said.
Lasisi Akinsanya, the Executive Chairman of the LCDA, could not be reached yesterday as his phone rang out. A text message made to him was not returned as of the time of filing this article.
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