Residents of Oke Ogbe community in Olorunda Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos State have appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to alleviate their suffering by resuming work on the abandoned link road connecting the community and about 14 others to the Badagry Expressway from Atura Junction.
The only link through which the communities get to other communities outside Badagry is a long wooden bridge which it constructed and which serves as entry and exit points from the communities. Some of the communities are Oke Ogbe, Ipara, Agunmoh, Ijotun, Samo-Ile, Gomajayi, Paronsa, Seje, Eyekole and Zunve, among others.
Speaking with Southwest Report, the Baale of Oke Ogbe, Chief Segara Posu said after series of correspondence to the administration of former Governor, Babatunde Fashola, a contract was awarded for the construction of the 2.9kilometre road to Multi-Benefit Limited in 2013. The project, which includes the construction of a bridge across the water/swamp separating the communities from the Badagry Expressway, was to be completed in six months.
“The contractor mobilised to the site and begun skeletal work. He even moulded some pillars for the bridge which is about 50 metres long. Surprisingly, after three months, the contractor abandoned the project. Although we tried to know why he abandoned the project, we were not given any answer,” he said.
According to him, the community, through the Community Development Association (CDA) wrote several letters to the then Commissioner for Rural Development, copying the governor and Ministry of the Environment to complain about the abandoned work and asking that we be furnished with reasons; “ but there was no response or action on our letters till the end of Fashola’s regime.”
The Baale said before the administration of Ambode came on board last year, the community went to the Ministry of Rural Development in Alausa to find out what the problem was “and they told us that the file had been transferred to the Ministry of Works which will continue the work. But till now, nothing has been done”.
Continuing, he said: “When the new government came on board, the community did a follow up by writing Governor Ambode in December last year. We copied the Ministry of Works, Special Assistant (SA) to the Governor on Environment, Lagos State House of Assembly and our representative at the Assembly, Hon. David Setonji.”
On the strength of the correspondence, Governor Ambode met with the representatives of the community on January 10, this year. He directed us to the Ministry of Works; we held meetings with some ministry’s engineers and they promised they would come and start work, but till now nothing has been done.
“It is the only link road we have. We have to cross the water before we get to wherever we want to go. During rainy season, children and expectant mothers usually fall into the water. And if there is nobody to rescue them, they die. We have no primary school and no health centre in the community. Apart from that, the absence of a link road is also affecting our businesses,” he said.
While commending the state government for providing the communities with some social amenities such as electricity and awarding the contract which was later abandoned, he praised Ambode for considering the community’s complaints and meeting with its representatives.
Baale Posu appealed to the state government to come to the community’s aid by completing the abandoned link road and bridge, because, he said, we are approaching the rainy season so that our children and expectant mothers would not lose their lives unnecessarily.
“We have no health centre, no government school and no hospital. So, it is only the road/bridge that everybody uses; children have to cross the wooden foot bridge to and from school, same for expectant mothers going to the nearest health centre or hospitals,” Posu said.
He appealed to indigenes of the communities both at home and abroad to come back home “so that we can develop our communities together”.