Community to Fashola: Do something before next rainy season, else…

The residents complained that due to the abandonment of the project being handled by Bulletin Construction Company Limited, landlords and residents living on Lanre-Olaoye Crescent, Suberu Street, Makinde Street and Zawiyat Crescent, situated below the low land beside Akinde community are being threatened by erosion when the rain begins. According to the chairman of the […]

The residents complained that due to the abandonment of the project being handled by Bulletin Construction Company Limited, landlords and residents living on Lanre-Olaoye Crescent, Suberu Street, Makinde Street and Zawiyat Crescent, situated below the low land beside Akinde community are being threatened by erosion when the rain begins.

According to the chairman of the CDA, Mr Adebanjo Olonode, flood waters has eroded some streets, posing serious danger to school children in the area.

According to the chairman, the abandoned drain collector project has caused rain water and sewage from Akinde community to be stagnated at various points on Lanre-Olaoye Crescent which later becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes.

Olonode said: “Often, residents fall into the stagnated water, in particular, children returning from school or playing games on the streets. Some of them have developed skin problems as a result. The once beautiful and well kept streets have changed while offensive odour emanates from the stagnant water left behind after torrential rains.”

In his reaction to the abandoned project, the Secretary of the CDA, Mr Ajayi Ologundudu, explained that the residents of the area welcomed the development but berated the slow pace of work at the initial stage and the total abandonment of the project, noting that the drain collector project will remain a challenge to the community until it is completed by the contractor.

“Look at our street and Suberu Street. They have been seriously eroded because construction of the drain collector has been abandoned. We have been living here for years; we dug our gutters on our own without support from the state or the local government authority. We are surprised that all the drainages in Akinde community have been linked to this drain collector but unfortunately, the collector has been abandoned and another rainy season is fast approaching. We want the state government to come and save our children from being swept away,” Ologundudu maintained.

RESIDENTS COUNT LOSSES

Speaking on the same issue, a community leader, Mr. Femi Kujembola, lamented that his house and that of his neighbours were threatened by flood during last year’s rainy period. He expressed fears that should the abandoned drain collector remain unfinished before the rain starts this year, streets in the area may not be passable anymore going by the extent of damage flood had done to the streets last year.

“We have made several appeals to the authorities concerned to come and save us and our children from avoidable flood and erosion in the community. We are making further appeals to Governor Babatunde Fashola to come and rescue us. Our experience during last year’s rainy season should not repeat itself again this year,” Kujembola said.  

Also speaking on the abandoned drain collector in the community, Mrs Aina Obawole said it was unfortunate that the collector has to pass through the community, noting that the volume of water that passes through the street since the beginning of the construction of the drain has tripled what it used to be.

“It is unfortunate this collector passes through our street. Ours was one of the motorable streets and well kept environment before the introduction of the drain collector. But today, the street is the worst courtesy of the flood that caused the erosion of the street. If the government cannot assist us in beautifying our environment, they should leave us the way we were before. We have been made to suffer untold hardship because of the abandoned drain collector,” she said.

Bulletin Construction Company, the contractor handling about two kilometres of road from Ajegunle to Akinde, a border settlement between Lagos and Ogun State near Sango-Ota, arrived at the site with workmen and equipment.

They dug up red earth from the gutter on to the narrow road, removed some fences where it was necessary and construction of Ajegunle-Akinde road within Ojokoro Local Council Development Area (LCDA) commenced in earnest.

In between the construction work, the contractor with support from the state Ministry of Works, linked all the newly constructed drainages at Akinde together and diverted the gutter through a drain collector to the low land communities beside Akinde through Lanre-Olaoye crescent.

A visit to the community by Oodua Trust revealed that the drain collector was part of about two kilometres of road being constructed by the state government between Ilo-Ajegunle and Akinde Community. The road was about 60 percent completed while the drain collector was abandoned mid-way on Lanre-Laoye crescent.

The murky water originating from domestic wastes from Akinde community has become stagnant at the point where the drain was stopped in the middle of Lanre-Olaoye Crescent.  The dirty pool of water rippled when toads swim around feeding on maggots. Hardened mounds of red earth covered by weeds have taken over large sections of the street

GOVERNMENT’S ASSURANCE

Oodua Trust asked the Special Adviser to Governor Fashola on Works and Infrastructure, Eng. Ganiyu Johnson, what was delaying the completion of the Ilo-Ajegunle–Akinde road and the drain collector and he gave assurance that both would be completed soon.

According to him, there are so many such projects that the state government is executing. He promised that none of the projects would be left uncompleted by the time Fashola’s administration completes its first term tenure.

Engineer Ekundayo Kolawole is the resident engineer for Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area and Ojokoro LCDA; he told our correspondent that the drain collector in question is not part of the original road contract awarded to Bulletin Construction Company.

According to him, it was later observed by the team of engineers handling the Ajegunle-Akinde road project that the drain collector is inevitable to de-flood the whole area and make the road last longer. However, he said the construction company constructed the little part of the drain collector seen on Lanre-Olaoye crescent on its own.

“The approval for the construction of the collector is yet to be made. We are all working to get the approval. Once that is done, the remaining part of the drain collector will be constructed,” he assured.