Transporters, residents lament over bad roads in Ogun
By Seun Ibiyemi
Transporters and residents plying Ota-Lafenwa road linking to Ayobo area, a neighbouring town between Ogun and Lagos on Monday protested over the poor state of roads.
Motorists also lamented that the road is always a nightmare anytime it rains as it collapses completely, giving room for impunity by road users as drivers abandon their vehicles.
The road which also leads to the Idiroko border has been dilapidated for the past few years and has become a nightmare for industries, motorists and people living in area as they spend hours accessing their various offices, homes and industries.
Speaking to Nigerian NewsDirect, the Vice Chairman Ado-Odo Ota Zonal Community Development council, Prince Olatunji Onaolapo said, “the protest is to express our grievances on the state of our bad and deplorable roads, neglected by the Ogun state government for the past 10 years.
“The roads links Ayobo town in Lagos state to Ota in Ogun state. Our unhappiness stemmed from the moment the raining season commences every year, thus making all our major link roads impassable.
“For the past ten years, series of letters have been written to various government, like Ado-Ota LGA and the State government, on our deplorable roads, but without any concrete solution.
“Every year, the communities have to spend about N3million to construct culverts, drainages and grading of roads. About N4.05 million was spent in 2019 and N8 million was also spent in 2020 on other Road projects.
“Since we are paying taxes and VAT and are been shared by the three tiers of government, it is not compulsory for the Ogun state government to do it alone, but by any of the governments through their agencies
“We are appealing to the Federal Government, Ogun state government, Ado-Odo Ota local government and other stakeholders to urgently come to our rescue, as we totally need rehabilitation and reconstruction of our roads for betterment of our people and other social amenities.”
Also speaking to Nigerian NewsDirect, a transporter, Ajayi Ibrahim said that the state of the road is that bad to the extent that they have to voice out.
“I work on the this route on the daily basis for my daily bread, but road has been an issue, after paying N1,200 for ticket in the morning, one will still end up at the mechanic work shop fixing the arms of the vehicle.
“Hardly will you find any transporter on this route that doesn’t visit mechanic to fix one thing or the other, economically is not wise, we are running into loss.
“We plead to the government to come and fix our Roads for the betterment of we transporters”
Also speaking, a commercial bus operator, Sulaiman Abiodun, said accessing Sango-Oju-ore is always a tough order as the road has collapsed and needs urgent rehabilitation.
“The road is affecting our businesses. Our vehicles are breaking down on a daily basis. Even though we have jerked up transport fares to cover for hours wasted on the road, it doesn’t cover for the repairs of our vehicles. We need the government to come to our aid before our source of livelihood is completely destroyed,” Abiodun lamented.
