Some communities in Ikorodu division have appealed to the Lagos State government to intervene and save them from the poor state of their roads and the penchant for crazy bills being issued to them by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).
These communities, which include, Adamo, Parafa, Aleke and Erunwen are recounting the ordeals they face as a result of unmotorable roads and crazy bills they receive from the PHCN officials.
According to Mr. Idowu Oluwaseun, a resident of Adamo, once it rains in the area, every property would be flooded and the roads would become worse for it with flooding and potholes. A situation he said, exposes people to various accidents on the road. He, therefore, appealed to the government to rehabilitate the roads and provide transformers to the community to solve the problem of poor power supply.
While speaking with Oriwu Sun, Mr.Wale Oluaye, who resides in Parafa, Ikorodu, lamented the existence of potholes at Itoikin roads, which exposes residents to hold-ups, accidents and armed robbery on the road. He then called on the federal government through the Lagos State government to intervene and rehabilitate the road to save them travel hours.
Mr. Oluaye also called on the government to checkmate the use of Okada for armed robbery, which has also become rampant in their area. According to him, “There is need to start checking any Okada rider plying any Lagos road at night and their movement should be restricted at night and during the day, especially in the reserved areas.”
For many landlords and tenants in Laiyeode and Aleke communities in Ikorodu, crazy bills from the stable of IKEDC was a major concern. According to Mr. Temitayo Moshood, the Assistant Chairman of Imope Landlords Association, Aleke, electricity supply to the whole area had remained very poor but the charges are crazy.
He lamented that they don’t have meters and even those that have meters don’t have PHCN officials to read their meters. Mr. Temitayo said that to ensure cooperation of the residents, PHCN should distribute prepaid meters to the community as soon as possible to avoid crazy bills.
In a related development, the residents of Eruwen Community in Ikorodu Local Government have decried the poor state of their roads and have urged the Lagos State government to urgently intervene and repair the roads.
According to the reports gathered, the alleged road, which is the main road connecting all the seven communities in Eruwen, is very much in a bad shape and has caused a lot of stress to the residents.
In an interview with some of the leaders in the communities, Oriwu Sun learnt that the state government has always been informed about the poor condition of the road; yet, there has not been any intervention.
According to them, the only impact made by the government on the community was during the last general elections, when they attempted to tar the road but ended up worsening its poor condition; thereby, endangering the health of the residents.
In an interview with a community leader, Mr. Adeyinka Oshi, Oriwu Sun learnt that the communities have been making efforts every year for the past thirty (30) years to repair the road by themselves but have not effected much change. He also talked about not having benefited from the 114 roads project, since they were told government was not approving more than five hundred meters of road. He lamented the absence of government presence in their area and the untold hardship imposed on residents by bad roads.
Another community leader, Alhaji Sikiru Jaiyesinmi Balogun, talking about land use act just introduced by the government, said that government had no reason to generate income from the community if they don’t offer anything in return.
A student, Miss Glady’s Uzogaradu from Ikorodu High School, who resides at Eruwen, said they get to school late every day since they can’t fund vehicles easily as a result of the bad road. Another resident, a teacher at the African Bethel Primary School, Mrs. Moses Nsima, told Oriwu Sun, “The road is bad and is spoiling my vehicle. So, I don’t even take my vehicle out anymore and I go through public transport,” she stated.
An Okada man, who prefers anonymity, said that at the end of every day, they end up with waist pain and stress. He revealed that the Okada Association of Eruwen once contributed six hundred thousand naira (N600,000) to repair the road without any positive change.