Ijoko/Agbado Road: The pain and anguish of abadonment

For residents of the communities situated along Ijoko -Agbado-Berger Road, linking Ogun State with Lagos, the pains of lost ancestral homes, personal properties, businesses and infrastructure have been the lot of hundreds and thousands of this border community.
What is more is the lack of any pronouncement by the Governor Dapo Abiodun government on his plan for the road planned to transform the area from its present state, have made things uncertain.
Though, the area is benefiting from the rehabilitation of 236 primary schools and health centres in all the wards in the state, yet the condition of living is pathetic especially with the torrential rains, which have made the major roads messier coupled with the abandoned five flyovers and bridges that dotted the 32 kilometres road from Ijoko to Berger in Lagos State.
For Samson Adamolekun, the relocation of his thriving general merchandise in Agbado have affected his earnings and stunted the growth of his business. What is more, shortly after relocating to a new shop after demolition of his shop, the bulldozers roared again to demolish the new shop due to change of mind by the federal government to expand the new Lagos and Abeokuta Road to build the modern rail station.
His case is not different from Okechukwu Okafor, a dealer in vegetable oil who also was forced to relocate to another shop in the neighbourhood only to loose same spot due to further widening of the Ijoko-Berger Road by the ogun State government. To make matters worst, he just paid N200,000 6as new rent.
The new demolition apart from dislocating him and making him lose customers almost grounded his business.
If the shop owners are in agony, property owners in the area who are yet to be paid any compensation by the then government of Senator Ibikunle Amosun are full of envy for those in the adjoining rail road being constructed by the federal government. The later have fully paid those who lost their houses and lick their temporary dislocation and use the money to seek and build new houses in the interior.
Yet, residents of adjoining roads like Adiyan , Matogbun and Lambe are also reeling in pains as a result of the condition of their roads being maintained by communal efforts.
To compound the situation, touts and hoodlums and the members of the national Union of Road Transport Workers( NURTW) came together last week and demolish the culvert linking Oke- Aro with densely populated Matogbun being maintained by volunteers in the Oke Aro/Matogbun area community development councils. It is obviously a ploy to discourage the repair efforts in order to continue their exploitative charges due to the state of the roads.
But Engineer Femi Tanimowo , Alhaji Taofeek Edun and other public spirited leaders in the area, are undaunted by the activities of the hoodlums and enemies of progress.
They fixed the damaged culvert under 24, hours to ease the pain of car owners and commuters.
Till date no word yet from the Governor Abiodun new public works agency now charged with fixing bad roads in the state when it will move to the area where businesses and residents daily groan in pains to survive due to the indescribable condition of the roads.
However, a top official in the government who prefer to remain anonymous said the government is not in a hurry to complete the abandoned Ijoko-Berger Road because of its financial implications, more so when four of the five flyovers and bridges are yet to be completed.
Funmi Adewale, a trader in the Lambe area want the state government to urgently fix the bad and unmotorable roads in the various communities home to hundred of thousands of residents who commute daily to neighbouring Lagos state to earn a living.
It will be recalled that Governor Abiodun and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos recently spoke of setting up a boundary commission to develop border areas between the two states. Newdawn sources revealed that no concrete efforts has been made to out words to action except the concession granted by President Muhammadu Buhari to take over construction of three federal roads namely Lagos-Abeoukuta, Epe-Ijebu Ode and Ikorodu-Sagamu road to ease movement between the two states.
For now,residents of the Ijoko- Agbdao and Berger axis have to endure the unending pains and sufferings compounded by the torrential rains occasioned by the world climatic changes.