Residents groan over deplorable Lagos community road, seek repair

Residents of Olaoluwa Community Development Association under the Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have lamented the deplorable condition of their road, which they said had remained in disrepair for more than 30 years, leaving commuters stranded, businesses struggling and schoolchildren exposed to danger.

 When our correspondent visited the community on Thursday, residents said the road had become impassable during rainfall, making transportation difficult and forcing people to trek from the nearest bus stop to their homes.

 They also lamented that commercial motorcycles and tricycles could no longer access the area.

 The chairman of the community, Moses Adeola, said residents had made several efforts to get the authorities to repair the road, including writing letters, recording videos of its condition and appealing through radio stations, but their efforts had yielded no results.

 “For over 30 years, we have been making efforts and appealing to the authorities to come and assist us, but nothing has been done,” Adeola said.

 He explained that the road served as a major route linking several communities, adding that its deplorable condition had caused accidents involving residents being transported to the hospital.

 “Pregnant women being taken to the nearest general hospital across the road often fall off motorcycles because of its deplorable condition. People with medical emergencies being transported to the hospital also experience similar incidents, including women in labour,” he said.

 Adeola added that schoolchildren struggled to get to school whenever it rained, noting that rainfall a few days earlier had rendered the road impassable and left residents without an alternative route.

 He said the community had written several letters to the authorities and sent videos of the road to the local government, while appeals had also been made through radio stations.

 “We are now helpless and need the government to come to our rescue,” he added.

 The CDA chairman also accused local government officials of prioritising the collection of shop permit fees over addressing the hardship caused by the road, saying some businesses had been locked up despite the difficulty traders faced in attracting customers.

 “People open their shops, but customers hardly come because of the state of the road. Despite this situation, officials still come to lock up their businesses over shop permits,” he said.

 Similarly, the former chairman of Prestige Community Development Association, now known as Ultimate CDA, under the Olaoluwa CDA, Oluwokiti Ephraim, said residents and individuals had made efforts to repair the road for about three decades without success.

 He said the road led to a general hospital, making its poor condition particularly dangerous for pregnant women, people with asthma and children during the rainy season.

 “The state and local governments have visited the area, recorded videos of the road and left, but we have yet to see any intervention,” Ephraim said.

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 He added that the road had severely disrupted transportation, as commercial motorcycles and tricycles could no longer ply it.

 “People coming from the expressway have to stop at the junction and walk to their destinations. If you have goods to transport, you have to carry them on your head because you cannot get a motorcycle to help you,” he said.

 Ephraim warned that the situation could become particularly difficult during emergencies at night, when vehicles risked breaking down while attempting to navigate the damaged road.

 He appealed to the state and local governments to intervene, stressing that the community could not repair the road without government assistance.

 A resident, Doris Alaba, who said she had lived in the community for almost 20 years, also recounted her experience with the road, saying she once fell into a water-filled pothole while going to work.

 Alaba said the condition of the road also disrupted her travel arrangements when she was preparing to travel to the United States on November 18 last year.

 “No Uber driver could enter the community to pick me up. I had to call some young men to help carry my luggage to the bus stop before I could get a vehicle to take me to the airport,” she said.

 She lamented that the road had affected commercial activities, with many shops shutting down because customers could no longer easily access the area.

 “Many shops are now locked up because there is no market. When the road is in such a hazardous condition, people cannot come into the community to buy goods,” she said.

 Alaba further expressed concern over the safety of schoolchildren, saying some had fallen into water-filled potholes during the rainy season, including incidents reported around late July and September.

 She added that residents often had to pay people to carry their goods from the bus stop to their homes because commercial vehicles, motorcycles and tricycles could not access the community.

 When contacted on Thursday, the Executive Chairman of the LCDA, Lasisi Akinsanya, could not be reached, as his phone rang unanswered. A text message sent to him had yet to receive a response as of the time of filing this report.