By Ademola Olatunji
Residents of Agbele community in Grammar School area of Ikorodu Local Government, have welcomed the unique way that the 2024 Independence Day was celebrated with walk for fitness exercise by the community.
The walk, which was the first edition by the organizers who have planned to make it an annual Independence Day event, was organized by the Agbele Football Association.
As planned, the fitness walk commenced around 7am at the Baba Olomi junction with massive crowd, including old, young and children residing within the community, turning up for the exercise.
The crowd moved from the starting point at Mobil Petrol Sattion at Oke Ota – Ona where they spent some minutes engaging in exercises and later moved to Ikorodu Grammar School, where they again engaged in different exercises with instructors guiding them.
One of the organisers, Mr Oduniyi Ayomipo Sodiq, thanked residents for their support, and added that they never expected the large turnout.
“This walk out is being organized by Agbele Football Association, and we sought the support of the entire Agbele community and thanks to everyone, they came out to support us. It’s a good turnout. We hope to do this again by next year.
“It’s a nice development for the youths of Agbele community. As a committee, we never expected the large turnout for the first edition of the walk out. By the grace of God, we shall go again next year”, he said.
Alhaji Adegbite, Chairman Ajayi Oronti Community in Grammar School/Oke Ota – Ona, welcomed the idea of the walk which he described as a god means to engage the youths and also a way to bring people of different ages together.
“For anybody who knows what health is all about, will actually see that what we are doing today is encouraging for everybody to partake.
“When I got the message that this thing will happen, I took it upon myself that I will mobilize my CDA members, and as you can see, we have a lot of my people here, both elderly and young ones who are with us today.
“It’s a commendable thing that has been organized today, and I pray that we will be able to sustain it. It’s a good one which ensures a situation where the community and the youths can actually interact and interface.
“One of the things I see as a take away from this is that when you engage our youths, you ordinarily take them away from crime and all vices and when we collaborate, we will be able to build a community together.
He assured organisers of the community’s support for the continuation of the initiative.
“It’s commendable and I commend the youths in our community for organizing this and I want to encourage them that they should continue to do more of this and I want to assure them that we are going to support and collaborate with them at any point in time when they need our support.
“The lack of playing ground is a failure on the part of the government on one part. They are supposed to provide that, unfortunately we don’t have that in our community”, he said.
A resident, Barrister Adekunle Adekoya, also speaking, said:
“You know that exercise is good for the body and it’s necessary.
“I want to give kudos to the organizers. They have done extremely well. This is the first edition and you can see the massive turnout which is encouraging and great.
“We hope to see more of this because it will encourage the youths and the old ones cultivate the habit of exercise”, he said.
Mr Lanre Ayeni, also a resident of Agbele, welcomed the exercise and called for its continuation.
“I’m very happy and excited that I’m part of this exercise. I pray this doesn’t end today. It should be a continuous thing so that all of us can be happy and fit all time”, he said.
