Residents of Alaramimo, Aranse Olu, Azeez Olaose-bikan and Orelope Communities, all in Orile-Agege, have appealed to the Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to save them from extinction.
They said the communities with a population of about 350,000 people are threatened by extinction. The problem centres around an abandoned canal, which now encourages heavy flooding. It all started nine years ago.
Presidents of Alaramimo Community Development Association (CDA), Mr David Adesanya and Soretire and Environs Community Development Association (CDA) Alhaji Lateef Ejalonibu are pleading with the governor to address their plight before this year’s rain begins.
Leading other dejected and angry residents as they took The Nation round the communities, both leaders said the abandoned portion of the canal between Alaramimo and Azeez Olaosebikan streets have become a threat to lives and property in the area. They said many property owners who could no longer cope with the suffering sold their properties.
According to Adesanya, the happiness that signaled the commencement of the project turned sour when it was abandoned.
He noted that since the canal cleaning, de-silting and concrete lining project were abandoned in 2008, the people have been exposed to all manners of deprivations, including untold health hazards, as they became receptors of all the wastes coming from abattoir and its environs.
“Besides the health hazards which many of our residents have become innocent casualties of, to which they have had to bear the consequences alone, the people have also been denied basic life supporting infrastructures. The roads have gone from bad to worse, and life is becoming increasing unbearable for us all,” Adesanya sadly observed.
He noted that residents have not been keeping quiet about the matter. According to him, though they had written several petitions to the former governor since 2012, to show their resilience, they had in a letter to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode dated June 16, last year, intimated the governor of the need for his urgent intervention on the issue.
“Sir, as at July 2012, we have written several letters on the abandoned roads in our CDA to the governor and other relevant arms of the government then, to assist in making our roads motorable for the past 8 years when it has been neglected. As it was then, so it is today,” the letter to Ambode, a copy of which was given to The Nation had stated.
Streets that are badly affected by the ravaging effect of the neglected canal are Alaramimo, Olaleye, Adeniji, and Aranse Olu. He noted that the contractor handling the project from Abattoir stopped work at Alaramimo Street, abandoned Alaramimo and Azeez Olaosebikan, and continued the concrete lining project upstream.
“The effect of this abandonment has been borne in silence by our residents who cannot come in or go out any time it rains. The flood that overruns this abandoned canal had drowned no fewer than 10 people since 2008, the last being that of a carpenter who was swept away by the flood at Alaramimo.”
He went on: “The sad thing is that a blinding of the canal floor, a distance of up to 50 metes had been done before it was abandoned. The concrete floor has today been rendered useless as the entire area have been overgrown with bush.”
His colleague, Alhaji Ejalonibu, said despite repeated appeals that haveseen residents inviting Hon. Yinka Ogundimu, its representative at the House of Assembly, the Commissioner for the Environment Hon. Samuel Adejare and Hon Taofeek Adaranijo with the hope that those may help influence the government over the carnage of the abandoned project, nothing has been done.
Ejalonibu said the neglected canal is also badly affecting the world class Soretire Primary Health Care Centre, which despite government’s huge commitment continued to suffer poor patronage as a result of poor road network.
Evangelist James Amosu appealed to the government to save the people of the area.
Amosu, who is over 70, said he and other aging residents have resigned to fate, pleading with the governor to look at the area with some kindness and assist the people.
Secretary, Soretire and Environs CDA Kayode Alatise said the governor should look kindly at Alaramimo and environs and help the people live a more dignified life.
Alabi Adewunmi, a resident of Alaramimo Street, said the canal has made motoring a thing of the past in the area. According to him, Upper Alaramimo, which leads to Oko-Oba, had become impassable as motorists could no longer link lower Soretire to Abule Egba.
“Residents of this area want Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to bring meaningful governance to their doorstep by addressing the neglected canal that has become a major blot in the lives of the people. A project meant to improve the lives of the people, prevent flooding and improve easy flow of waste water can never be abandoned by any sensitive government. Let the government be sensitive to our needs in this part of the state and address this canal that has been abandoned for nine years,” another resident retorted.
For Lawrence Akinbile, resolving the abandoned Alaramimo canal remains the solution to abating flood disaster in these parts. “The Governor should live by the slogan of his government by bringing progress to the people of this area. We have suffered for too long, we have bore this neglect for nine years, it is time for the government to bring smile to our face as it has been doing for several communities in different parts of the state since it came into power,” Akinbile noted.
