By Charles Okogene
Months after relocating his leisure outfit, Rosellas Amusement Park and Events Centre from LASU/Igando Road Idumu to Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFC), Prince Abraham Oluwatoyin Ololade, the chairman of the events centre, cannot stop thanking God for leading him to the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Complex, Chief (Mrs.) Lucy Omosefe-Ajayi.
According to him he had gone all over Lagos and Ogun states searching for vacant parcels of land to rent, lease or acquire out rightly to locate Rosellas to when the offensive ordour and the invasion of rats, rodents and reptiles became unbearable in the old site and was scaring his corporate Nigeria clients away.
“All was well and business going fine until Lagos government suddenly decided to site a refuse dump beside us there; I just came to work one day and saw battalions of refuse trucks dumping refuse there and when I protested, they told me they were directed there.
“I ran to the commissioner for the environment then and he told me that it is just a stop gap. That they were moving it to b
Badagry but they never did till date.
“The dump site came with the offensive odour; flies, scorpions and other reptiles.
Even my subsequent engagement of successive governors of the state from Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola to Akinwunmi Ambode did not make any difference; though, I never met Ambode one on one. Of all the government officials I met on the issue, Mr. Muiz Banire (SAN), was most sympathetic to my plight. He visited me. Waded through the flood water in the place then even when he was been cautioned. not to and he said he wanted to feel my pain.
“It was after the horrible experience that God asked me to check LITFC. And when I got here, God led me to Chief Ajayi, an angel, who gladly gave me this Hall 5 without asking for anything aside the mandatory government approved rent. That is why I call here angel. Even when I returned and asked her what can I give her, she just said ‘I want to see the name Rosellas up, up there and please always remember me and my children in your prayers,’ Prince Ololade said.
According to him, with the new Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s promise to fix the bad Lagos/Badagry Expressway and the ongoing rehabilitation of the internal LITFC roads by Omosefe-Ajayi, the good old days of Rosellas are back.
“There is no doubt that the multinational companies that are into children foods that used Rosellas for the promotion of their brands but left us due to the offensive odour brought on us by the refuse site will patronise us again. I am confident of that,” he said as he conducted us round the place recently.
Though, the hall was badly run down, which he has started fixing, Prince Ololade still believes that the place is ideal for his business of leisure and amusement.
