… ‘we match on faeces to work’
The residents of Jibowu and Shoore streets in the Orile Agege Local Council Development
Areas of Lagos State will definitely not have pleasant Christmas and New Year celebrations, if nothing is quickly done by the appropriate authorities about the stench
oozing from the wasteland their vicinity has become.
The hapless people on the two adjoining streets are battling for survival as they struggle for a whiff of fresh breath every moment under the deluge of the filth that has overrun the area from the blocked and overflowing drainages and gutters running along the two streets.
The seedy atmosphere created in the area by the refuse strewn all over the already dilapidated roads on the streets is, however, making life unbearable for the residents of both Jibowu and Shoore streets. The unspeakable sanitary condition on the two streets, our correspondent learnt, had forced many of the residents to begin to plan to relocate from their homes to other areas with relatively better situation.
The Point correspondent, who visited the area, observed that some of the roads in the two streets had dirty gutters filled with murky waters running in the middle of the roads. The streets were also covered with weeds while mounds of refuse dotted the barely visible footpaths leading to the gates and doors of houses in the area. The footpaths have also been submerged and washed away by murky waters from collapsed large drainages pouring its seedy contents into the centre of the streets and leaving the residents with the alternative of walking on side stepping stones along and across the flooded and filthy streets to leave or come into their houses.
Some of the residents, who spoke with The Point, said that they had made several efforts to contact the Lagos State Government to assist them in overcoming their travails, but they had yet to record any success. One of the residents, Olanike Shabi, said that the impassable situation at the entrance to her family home had made it impossible for her father, who had been ill, to be taken to the hospital for his weekly appointments with his
doctors.
Shabi said that the roads across the streets had become so bad that the family could not risk driving their father, who had become frail due to illness, in his car out of their premises.
She said, “We had to stop taking my aged dad, who is ill, to the hospital for his weekly appointment with the doctor because as it is now, we can’t drive his car out of the compound because erosion has destroyed all the paths leading to our house. Rather, we invite the doctor to come and check him at home, and this is making us to pay extra charges for his appointment.
“All our cars are now being parked two streets away from our streets, which have been damaged by flood. As at last year, we were managing to enter our houses with a make-shift bridge that we built with concrete, but now, the situation has gone worse, because everything has been washed away by erosion and flood during the rainy season.”
Another resident, who is a pastor of a church in the area but declined to be identified, said that the situation had led to a drastic reduction in the population of his congregation over
the years.
He said, “The church committee is now looking for a rented building for our church because our entrance and church premises and the building itself have been taken over by the dirty gutter flooded with faeces and smelly dark water.
“This church was built more than 20 years ago but it cannot boast of 20 worshippers, especially on Sundays, due to the impossibility of easy movement in and out of the street. We didn’t know that the church would go down because of a problem like this.”
A bricklayer, who simply identified himself as Yusuf, said, “I’m appealing to the administration of Governor Ambode; we have been suffering in this area because of the roads in the streets in the past 20 years. Anytime it rains, it is always a double tragedy as
the streets will overflow, and because of our children, we usually build concrete makeshift steps and lay wooden planks across the streets for them to walk on.”
Residents’ efforts When our correspondent visited the area on Monday, it was observed
that, through communal efforts, big boulders, stones and disused car tyres had been put in place as stepping stones to enable the residents to walk through the streets. Worn out sack bags filled with sand had also been converted to makeshift stairs and placed by the entrances to some of the houses to aid residents to walk across the gutters in the middle
of the streets.
As at last year, we were managing to enter our houses with a make-shift bridge that we built with concrete, but now, the situation has gone worse.
The Chairman, Aniwura Community Development Association, under the aegis of Orile Agege LCDA, Prince Joseph Olu Akinola, said that the situation in the area had degenerated in the last 15 to 20 years. Akinola explained that the condition of the roads on the two streets got to a stage where cars could no longer be driven in the area.
He added that the residents had lodged several complaints and written formal letters to the LCDA, the Lagos State House of Assembly as well as the state Ministry of Works and Environment, respectively, in the past 10 years, but nothing had been done by the authorities so far.
The CDA chairman alleged that, in 2015 and 2016, the two affected streets were approved by the government to be rehabilitated but some landlords in the community, whose houses were on the right of way, frustrated the efforts.
Akinola said, “As at early this year, we were informed and hopeful that our street was going to be attended to because some officials from the ministry came to inspect the streets, but information got to us that some landlords who had connection with highly placed officials at Alausa went there to facilitate the removal of our streets from the list of those that had been earmarked for reconstruction.
So, our hopes were dashed but we have pushed the case to the State House of Assembly and we have been assured that our streets have been included in the budget for next
year. So, we hope they will address our plight.”
The traditional ruler of Orile Agege, the Alayige of Orile Agege, Oba Ambaliu Hakeem Agbedeyi(JP) said that there were many other streets in his domain having similar problems as Jibowu and Shoore. Oba Agbedeyi, however, said that the residents of the two streets had suffered most.
He said that several complaints had been made to the Lagos State Government about the area, adding that the government sent some officials to inspect the area. The traditional ruler assured the residents that the state government would address the problem.
“I have lodged complaints with the appropriate authorities from the local government up to the state government and they said they would look into our matter. Although they
have started work in some other less affected areas, they said work would soon commence in Jibowu and Shoore streets by the grace of God,” he said.
