Roads: Residents urge Sanwo-Olu to consider community

Some residents in Lagos on Tuesday urged Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to consider their communities in the emergency repairs going on across various parts of the state.

In an interview with our correspondent, residents around the Ikotun, Ejigbo and Isolo axis said their community also deserved the same urgency on road rehabilitation.

Mrs Obiageli Michael, a 42 years old media consultant, told our correspondent that Ikotun should make the list of those deserving urgent repairs of roads in the state.

“I have not seen any road as terrible as coming from somewhere like Cele to Ikotun.

“I’m curious; I honestly need to understand why no road within Alimosho Constituency 1 makes it on the first list of roads to be rehabilitated.

“These roads are terrible, spending more hours than you should on the road is hazardous, because on rainy days it doesn’t matter when you leave the house,’’ she said.

Our correspondent reports that following the outcry of Lagos residents about the deplorable road network in the state, Sanwo-Olu on Sunday Oct. 13, declared a state of emergency on dilapidated highways.

The roads mapped out for emergency rehabilitation are Ojota stretch of Ikorodu road, Motorsway-Kudirat Abiola Way, Aponbon Highway, Babs Animashaun road, Agric/Ishawo Road, Ijede Road in Ikorodu, Lekki-Epe Expressway from Abraham Adesanya to Eleko Junction.

Mr Prince Origbagbo, a Realtor, said that the state government should have carried out the repair in an alphabetical order to ensure transparency in the selection.

“The thing is if it was done in an alphabetical order nobody will complain, by so doing all areas will be touched, the way they have gone about it, it will be easy for some areas to be forgotten unknowingly.

“They could have also considered the population of residents in these areas, truth be told if it was done in an alphabetical order nobody will have course to complain.’’ he said.

Mr Ken Agbonkhese, a journalist, told NAN that it would not be realistic for the government to fix all the roads at once.

“Well the truth is, all the roads can’t be repaired at once but they could have taken one road from each Local Government Council Development Area (LCDA), but their motivation is different,’’ he said.

Sanwo-Olu had said Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) would be carrying out repairs on 116 inner roads across the state.

This, he said, would be in addition to the over 200 roads rehabilitated by the corporation in the last three months.

Mr James Lawrence, a 37 years old lawyer, told NAN that that if the contractors are fast enough before another raining season most roads could be repaired.

“As long as the state government can guarantee that these contracts will be well executed and managed then it won’t matter if Abaranje road is left out.

“We won’t want situation whereby projects will be abandoned halfway and in the process making lives of commuters more miserable than it was in the beginning.

“If they will be dedicated and treat this with utmost urgency, everything will be fine eventually,’’ he said.

Our correspondent reports that contractors deployed for the work includes Julius Berger, Hitech, Arab Contractors, Metropolitan Construction, Salvagogu Construction, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and RCF Nigeria Limited.