Kunle ADELABU
Residents of Igbe in Igbogbo/Bayeku Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Ikorodu division of Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria, have once again made passionate appeal to the new Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come to their rescue by rehabilitating the Igbe-Oreyo road which, according to them, has been in terrible state for many years.
According to the residents, the state of the road, which they described as the original Igbe road, has impacted negatively on the social and economic lives of the people in the area.
The community leaders and residents made the appeal recently when they embarked on the tour of the 72km collapsed road with selected journalists.
The road connects Ikorodu-Igbogbo road with Oreyo, Ijede, Imota and other major roads and towns.
The six Community Development Associations (CDAs) – Onolu, Igbehin Adun, Otitoloju, Ife-Oluwa, Itedo Oluwa and Igbe Road Zone in Igbe axis had, in the past few weeks, embarked on communal efforts to make the road motorrable by clearing the drainages and filling the damaged portion.
According to residents, number one cause of the damages to the road are the trucks belonging to miners who are dredging laterite sand from a close by bush.
Hundreds of these trucks were alleged to be frequenting the road on daily basis with full loads of laterite sand.
The lack of attention for the road for several years by the residents and local government authority when the area was less populated also brought about the collapse of the drainages as nobody cared for it and this is responsible for the spilling of erosion on the road whenever its rains.
The area, which could only boast of few hundreds of residents in the late 80s and early 90s, has witnessed huge increase in its population and this has put tremendous pressure on the road.
The efforts of the community to create a bye-pass when they envisaged that the main road was on the verge of collapse after becoming impassable did not yield expected result as the alternative road could not cope with the tremendous pressure visited on it by road users before it also started calling for attention.
Before its collapse, the road used to serve as test road for families and driving schools in Ikorodu to train intending drivers.
The Isoko tribe of the country who are into agriculture and resided in the area also used to spread their processed cassava flour on the road to dry in the 80s and early 90s.
Prince (Engr.) Amid Adekunle Oduborisha, a Geologist and fellow Environmental Engineer and one of the community leaders, spoke on the creation of the road by the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, efforts by the community to get the attention of the government for its repair and the impact of its deplorable state on the social and economic lives of the people in the area.
The politician, who retired from Chevron after 28 years of service to the Oil Company and now a consultant on environment, also stated that the road is the original Igbe road that is in the government’s records since the time of Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
He stated that the road was created in the early 80s to connect the three districts of the then Irepodun Local Government – Igbogbo, Ijede and Imota, which are today refer to as Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).
“This road is an important road that was designed and created by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s administration. It was designed to connect the then Irepodun Local Government comprising of three Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) today – Imota, Ijede and Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDAs.
“Jakande created this road to link up these three major towns so as not to have any need to ply the main road in Ikorodu township and also to ease traffic there.
“You can see that Jakande could foresaw what is happening today in terms of traffic congestion”.
He further emphasized the importance of the road also as a link to Ijebu-Ode and other parts of the country.
“From Igbe road, you can link Ijede, Imota, Itoikin and Ijebu-Ode without having to pass through the main road in Ikorodu township.
“This is a very significant road in term of properties. There are lots of businesses, private schools, multi-million naira worth of investments in this area.
“We have middle class and upper middle class residing here”.
Engr. Oduborisha, while lamenting the deplorable state of the road, stated that the community has made several efforts to call the attention of the government to its dilapidated state but all to no avail.
He added that the failure of the government to repair the road has compelled the landlords and other stakeholders in the area to once again pull resources together to embark on further palliative works on the road.
“With the condition this road is now, we just want the government to come to our aide right urgently.
“Letters upon letters have been written over time and the landlords have now decided that it’s about time to take our destiny into our own hands. Therefore, all the landlords have been putting together resources.
“So far, we have been able to contribute close to N2million and Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDA has promised to assist us with some heavy duty equipments like roller and lorry to cart away the sands removed from the blocked drainages that we have cleared”, he revealed during the interview
“You can see that we have cleared all the drainages that are on the both sides of the road.
“We need government to assist us with a palliative intervention in the meantime. We have put resources together through our landlords, community development associations and other stakeholders to make sure that this road becomes motorrable”.
About the Igbogbo-Igbe road which the Lagos State Government is embarking on its rehabilitation, Prince Oduborisha stated that what is happening is contrary to the necessary documents with the state government which he claimed to depicts that the original Igbe road starts from Igbe to Oreyo in Igbogbo.
“You cannot change history. Igbe road starts from the Igbe junction and not from Igbogbo or Oreyo. The road from Jakande’s file to Rauf Aregbesola’s regime as Commissioner for Works and Raji Fashola’s file indicates that Igbe road commences from Igbe junction and not Igbogbo”, he emphasized.
“The history should not be fabricated to suit expediency. This is the main road that was designed and created to link three LCDAs.
“We intend to communicate this to the government. We have the facts; history and approval overtime that have been given by the state government on Igbe road. They are in the file at Alausa and we are going to make references to those files in the Ministry of Works and Infrastructures”.
He condemned the number of houses destroyed in an attempt by the state government to create right of way for the Igbogbo road which its rehabilitation work has been abandoned.
The environmentalist also described the level of destruction during the demolition exercise as below the World Bank standard.
“You can see the level of destruction in Igbogbo in an attempt to change the course of history. That is unnecessary and it is against the World Bank standard on development.
“If they have sticked to the original plan and focus on the original Igbe road, there would not have been so much destruction in the name of giving way for the construction. The destruction would have been minimal.
“By the World Bank standard, we should not have entertained such destruction in Igbogbo township.
On the effects of the deplorable state of the Igbe road on social and economic activities of the area, Engr. Oduborisha said that,
“Many businesses have folded up, parents have had to move their children out of many schools in the area, many have abandoned their homes for another area and there is one very significant business in the area called De Sleek hotel, a very fine hotel, which the road has negatively impacted upon.
“There are other companies that have moved out of the area because the road can no longer be accessed any more and this has become a great challenge for us”.
Engr Oduborisa said further that the deplorable state of the road had caused lots of auto accidents as it has become almost impassable for motorists.
On the efforts made by the community to draw government’s attention to the road, he stated that :
“Right from Bola Tinubu’s regime where Rauf Aregbesola was the Commissioner for Works, we have been going back and forth to Alausa. During this period, Gov. Bola Tinubu awarded the road and it was announced in the state’s budget.
“Subsequently, we have been consistently going to Alausa even during the Babatunde Raji Fashola’s regime. We got to the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure where we saw the file and they gave us hope and assurances that the road would be sorted out.
“The issue as at that time was the amount budgeted for the construction of the road . The original budget as at that time was about N90million from what we had and the fact that such amount was too small for the project, the contractor allegedly refused to embark on the reconstruction of the road work.
“It was CONSTENG Engineering that the project was awarded to but the fact that the money was not enough, the company couldn’t embark on the project ”, Oduborisha revealed.
“When we saw the extent of devastation of the road, we also sent a protest letter to the immediate past governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, telling him that Igbe road is the one in the original plan and that we do not know how they came about the one that they are doing”, he stated.
“The original Igbe road, where we are now, have little or no negative impact for government to move in and contstruct.
While appealing to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Prince Oduborsha stated:
“We want the new administration, under the leadership of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come to our aid. This is the original Igbe road and he should go back to the original file in the ministry of Works and the original documents on the local government creation in order to know that this is the original Igbe road.
“He will see where the original Igbe road starts from in the records. This is the original Igbe road and there is no contention about it.
“We appeal to the government to intervene. The landlords have contributed close to N2million to rehabilitate the road in order to make it easier for the government to come in and reconstruct it during the dry season”.
Mr Adeniyi Joshua Abolanle, Chairman, Igbe Road Rehabilitation Committee, who has been living in the area since 1989, also highlighted the efforts made by the community to make the road passable accessible for thickly populated residents and thousands of other road users whom the road would have been serving on daily basis.
“Due to the condition of the road, all the six communities have put heads together to evacuate the drains and gutters, and also to fill the pot holes, but yet we still need government to intervene because we cannot do it alone,” he said.
“The condition of the road as you could see it now is terribly bad. We discovered that okada riders and other commercial transporters have refused to come to our area and this is making our residents finding it difficult to go out or come into the community. This is the reason the six CDAs came together to fix the road since the government has not been listening to us.
While speaking further on the efforts of the community so far, Mr Adeniyi also appealed for intervention from the state and local governments .
“We have evacuated the sand from the drainages and we intend using the sand to fill the potholes on the road but we have discovered that we cannot do it alone and this is the reason we are appealing to both local and the state governments to come to our aid.
“We need tools, materials, stones, dust and many more to make the road passable”.
“In fact, if you look at many of the buildings like this one (pointing to 12 flats apartment), the landlord and tenants have moved out because the condition of the road is no longer bearable for them”.
More so, the chairman of the rehabilitation project committee stated that the community needs about N7million to achieve the planned palliative measure on the road.
“To complete the palliative measure, we need close to N7million”, he revealed.
Mrs Funmilayo Kazeem, Secretary, Igbe Community Development Association (CDA), said the condition of the road has taken its toll on transportation costs and prices of foodstuff as residents have to pay more.
“The condition is very bad and has affected us negatively in many ways. Many businesses have closed down, thereby affecting our economic lives.
“In fact, when it is late, we always find it very difficult to return to our various places because okada riders always refused to take us because of the state of the road and if they have to accept carrying us after so much pleas , we will have to pay more”.
She stated that many landowners in the area have refused to complete their houses because of the condition of the road, while also appealing to the government for urgent intervention.
“Many people refused to complete their houses because of the condition of the road.
“We are appealing to the present administration in the state to please remember us. The governor should endeavor to come and inspect this to road to have a feel of our sufferings”.
The community secretary also lamented the effect of the terrible state of the road on the education of the residents’ children.
“Whenever it rains, our children cannot go to school. In fact, you cannot even allow your children to go out”.
THE IMPACT also spoke with commercial motorcycle riders, popularly known as ‘Okada riders ’, plying the area for their reactions over the state of the road.
They lamented over the effects of the road on their operations while also appealing for quick intervention by the government of Governor Sanwo-Olu.
Mr Abdulquadri Abdulbakri, an okada rider stated that , “This road from Igbe junction to Oreyo is not good at all and we are begging our governor to fix the road for us”.
He, however, commended residents on the palliative measures embarked upon on the road.
Another okada operator, Mr Johnson Fadioha,in his own reaction, stated that, “The effect of the present state of this road has badly affected our business. We cannot pass from the Igbe junction to Igbe-Laara. We always find longer route to pass whenever it is compulsory for us to bring passengers here.
“We are begging the new governor, Mr Sanwo-Olu, to assist us with this road by reconstructing it because we don’t have another road to ply on our daily movement to work.
“We want our governor to come to our aid quickly”.
