Residents groan under Lagos-Ibadan rail project

Residents of villages in Abeokuta area along the Lagos-Ibadan axis where a rail project is currently in progress say the project is bringing them discomfort. Daily Trust Saturday visited the communities to know their plight.   Pa Amos Babatunde, the 95-year-old baale (village head) of Sholo, a suburb of Abeokuta, Ogun State, looked helplessly from […]

Residents of villages in Abeokuta area along the Lagos-Ibadan axis where a rail project is currently in progress say the project is bringing them discomfort. Daily Trust Saturday visited the communities to know their plight.

 

Pa Amos Babatunde, the 95-year-old baale (village head) of Sholo, a suburb of Abeokuta, Ogun State, looked helplessly from his dilapidated house built of mud. Flood had demolished a larger part of it. Some of his belongings were spread on the falling house.

“Look at me”, he said when some reporters visited, as he sat in the room and spoke through the window.

“This house was built over 40 years ago. Since we have been living in this community, we had not experienced this (erosion) before, but, the new situation is surprising and challenging to us. The construction company working on the railway project is responsible for this, this is the effect of their work,” he said in Yoruba.

There were five buildings, four of them and a makeshift Cherubim and Seraphim Church were built from mud. The flooded village is among the 150 spread across 70 communities where Lagos – Ibadan rail project passes. The red sand excavated during the construction of a tunnel at Laderin Junction by the contractor handling the project, the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), were dumped around the village, forming an artificial hill.

The head of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Prophet Akinola Akintunde, blamed the erosion, which he said had swept away their belongings, on the sand.

“You can see the gravity of what the project has caused, those who have farms cannot go to farm. This village has a particular source of water that we drink, it is no more in existence because the erosion has affected it. We no longer hold service in this church because the place has become muddy, the land has been destroyed,” he said.

Tales of woe

For residents, it’s been tales of woe. Their challenge, it was gathered, started in April 2017 when the federal government project started, affecting Akinseku Titun, Elefun, Jangede, Gbagura, Alagbayun, Abata, Sokan, Isa Afoyanmo, Gbensere, Laderin, and Ori, among other communities.

Many residents though groaning, admitted that the project, if completed, would bring development to their communities.

The Secretary of the Joint Community Development Association, Oyetunji Ayobami, said over 450 houses including schools gave way for the railway line. Some of the schools were relocated, with a large number of communities cut off link roads, he said.

According to the dwellers, a few roads constructed to link the communities have become impassable. He added that drainages were badly constructed and channeled into many houses and farmlands.

All these, he submitted, have given room for erosion, destroying their houses and polluting  their sources of water.

“We now buy water from the town (Abeokuta) at huge cost,” he said.

A copy of a letter of complaint obtained by Daily Trust Saturday hinted that lack of link – roads has made pupils to pass through the railway line, with the attendant risks.

The Chairman of Ori-Osoko CDA, Olakunle Egbeyemi, said, “Ori is where the terminal is located, but people have to go through pains on a daily basis to cross to the other side. Even some of the children in the community who do cross to the other side to school most times usually stay at home because it is muddy and  difficult to get to the other side.

“We have called them to come and assist us, but they have failed, the bridge that is supposed to serve as link which was divided by the railway project has been abandoned for more than a year.”

Egbeyemi added that about 700 structures and land were affected.

“We lack access road and medical facilities. Before you can get any medical help here, you have to go to Kemta and the journey to Kemta is not short.”

The Proprietress of Future Start Academy in Olaotan, Mrs Sipeola Omoloara, said the situation had affected pupils’ enrollment in the school.

“The enrollment has reduced, there are some people who have enrolled their wards in the school but because of the bad road, they have stopped coming. We want the government to help us fix the road so that it can be accessible and make our day-to-day activities easy,” Omolara said.

A resident of Elefun Village, Mrs. Adenike Akindele said, “This construction has affected our water.  We don’t have water. We have to go to the town before we can get water. Erosion has affected the road we manage. Transportation is another issue. We now pay N300 for bike for a distance we used to pay N100 before the construction started.”

Protest and demand

In February this year, during  the commissioning of the first phase of the  Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail project in Abeokuta, residents of 70 host communities stormed the venue to air their grievances.

The protesters had stormed Ori village where the programme was holding, carrying placards with different inscriptions.

Residents applauded the federal government for what they described as a development project, but complained  of being cut-off from the urban centres and therefore requested for access roads and overhead bridges for linkage.

Then the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, at the event ordered contractor to address all the issues raised by the residents.

Amaechi, however, pointed out that the government had not encountered such complaints from other areas which the rail project passes through.

Last week, the aggrieved residents re-ignited the protest when they stormed the Ogun State House of Assembly, demonstrating against the alleged failure of the contractor to redeem its promises to address their plight.

The protesters led by the chairman, Abule-Ake Community Development Association, Alhaji Farouk Akintunde, lamented the failure of the contractor to redeem the promise of an overhead bridge across the rail line to connect the villages to town.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, however, assured them of the government’s commitment to their welfare, promising the assembly’s readiness to pass a resolution on the matter at plenary with a view to ending their plight.

Reacting in a telephone chat with our correspondent, the Public Relations Consultant to the CCECC, Alhaji Abdulraouf Akinwoye, described the recent protest as a misconception, saying they thought the project had been concluded and feared that their demands may not be met.

“The CCECC is socially responsible and we have attended to the communities’ needs. A number of them have been given boreholes. I want to assure them that we will not bring the railway project to create discomfort for them. This is a project that cuts across 156 kilometers. And there is no way we would not attend to their needs of the communities.

“But certainly, I must tell you that the protest to the Ogun State House of Assembly was based on misconception.  They thought the project had been concluded, but no. By next week, I will personally visit the areas to investigate the matter,” he said.

Akinwoye, however, blamed the residents for the flooding in the area, saying a number of them dump refuse in the drainage when it rains.