…With exclusive pictures of the road
By Tunde Abatan
Current state of the Ijoko road
When he took the oath of office barely 14 months ago as the fifth elected governor of Ogun, the gateway state, one of the promises he made that was also his sing song during electioneering campaign, was to complete all abandoned projects embarked upon by his predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
As a result, residents of the area where many houses were demolished for road construction heaved a sign of relief that Governor Dapo Abiodun, the newly elected chief executive of the state who took oath of office few days to his 59th the birthday will reew their hope for a better life truncated by abandoned projects, unpaid compensations and insecurity of lives and properties, which have been their lot since commencement of the projects in 2012 .
The projects most of which are crucial assess roads to neighbouring Lagos state chief among which is the 32 kilometres stretch from Sango-Ota to Ojodu Berger is a crucial link to Lagos and a strategic boundary with hundreds of communities, which housed the ever expanding Lagos population. The boundary area for now is bustling to its seems and when rain comes as it is now, agony, pains and bad economy becomes the lot of the citizens. They have experienced this situation since 2012 when the bulldozers roared into action pulling down hundreds of houses to give way to the ambitious project, which former Governor Amosun conceived to ease the burden of commuting within and to and from Lagos.
What is more, as Governor Abiodun confirmed Wednesday July, 15th, the residents of this strategic border most of whom work in Lagos area pay their taxes to Ogun. Thanks to a strategic economic alliance between former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos and his then Ogun counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, the man known for his tall caps imbued with a tall ambition to rebuild Ogun with roads, long bridges.
Ijoko road
However, 14 months into his tenure, people of the boundary areas of the state with exception of Epe-Ijebu Ode axis and Ikola-AIT Roads, have suffered neglect, pains and torture always compounded during the rainy seasons, in their daily efforts to commute to Lagos and pay their monthly tax to Ogun.
They are pained that in spite of paying their taxes (conservative estimate put at N500 million monthly since 2014) and other civic responsibilities, development is far removed from them.
Governor Abiodun who has neither toured nor pay a visit to Ijoko-Berger axis since inception of his government nor uttered a statement on when he would complete the most ambitious road project in the state with five bridges and fly overs, declared in Epe while inspecting the 15 kilometre road he started upon assuming office that his government would soon return to site to complete the project estimated at N70 billion naira.
Ijoko road under cinstruction
While he shared the pains and agony which the over million population has suffered he also declared that for the six-lane project to be completed, his government would have to scale it down adding “we are re-evaluating them (abandoned roads),we are looking at ways and means to ensure that they are within budget, of course, we can’t afford to spend N70billion on these roads. So there is a lot of re-designing going on for those roads.”
To underscore his belief in the completion of the road he further declared, “we understand the importance of those roads.That road particularly in Ifo Local Government is a very densely populated area, which is a boundary area between ogu and Lagos states. A lot of our people live there and work in Lagos, they pay taxes to us in Ogun state, the condition of those roads are beyond deplorable. But all I can ask is that you have to be patient with us. it would be inconsiderate for anyone to expect Dapo Abiodun to have fixed that road in less than 12 months”.
Abandoned bridge on the Ijoko road
also read: Ijoko/Agbado Road: Dapo Abiodun in action
But before lasting solution is taken,Governor Abiodun also disclosed that he directed the Ministry of works to” look at what we can e doe on that road as palliative to ensure that our people do not suffer unduly. I want to use this opportunity to say that I share the pain of our people that live in that corridor, but they should be rest assured that we are on top of that situation in terms of re-designing that road and prioritising it”.
To further assure the people of the area of his commitment to bring succour to them he declared,”They will soon begin to see active work on that road, and it would not be something we are doing for photo-ops or something that we are going to start and abandon when we start on that road, having re-dimension, re-evaluate and re-designed it, we would ensure that we complete it with drainage. we want to bring more people to live in Ogun state and work in Lagos because Ogun state is spillover state for Lagos state so we want to continue to encourage that”.
One of the bridges on the road
It will be recalled that a week ago, the state works commissioner, Engineer Akinsanya, had toured the Ijoko -Alagbole ,Ojodu axis to familiarise and undertake the on the spot assessment of infrastructural neglect of the area, which neither has motorable roads, no hospital(s) but ill equipped health centres. As for security, the only sign of such are the Agbado and Akute police stations, which are more of glorified police posts lacking in vehicles and manpower to police the area with it’s vast populationalso read:
But all these promises of completing the 32 kilometres roads would amount to nothing except the various adjoining communities like Ijoko, Adiyan, Matogbun, Olambe, Ishasi, which feedsfeeds the express road from Ijoko to Ojodu Berger are all made motorable.
Deploying the states Pubic Works Agency, which has completed similar roads in other areas of the state like Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ota, Ilaro, to fix the roads in this communities would complement the government’s efforts to bring physical and economic development closer to the huge populace and consequently reducing poverty, which is the ultimate goal of any government.
Governor Abiodun who in his resolved not to leave any abandoned project also promised the residents of Ijebu ode-Epe road axis that theirs too will not be an abandoned project but one that will be completed latest early July 2021 as against early next year. This delay ,he attributed to the corona-virus pandemic.
Abiodun giving an overview of his government’s efforts said it has constructed over 80 kilometres of roads in the state adding that many investors have already expressed interest in applying for industrial land along the Epe corridor towards creating businesses that would further provide job opportunities.
If Governor Abiodun can demonstrate enough political courage and match his words and promises to also complete the abandoned Ijoko-Akute-Ojodu with action, as he is doing with Ijebu Ode-Epe axis, he would have changed the narrative concerning boundary communities in the state and encourage more business investments that will generate more than triple of business job opportunities in the state and significantly improve on his tax drive.
Besides,he would by so doing also attract more votes rather than the paltry 30,000 votes his party got in the 2019 governorship elections down from the 80,000 it recorded in 2015.
Ijoko road
- ongoing palliative measure on the ijoko road
