Over thirteen (13) communities in Ikorodu North local Council Development Area (LCDA) through self-help effort have pool resources together to repair their damaged main access road.
The communities, under the ageis of Oladeiibi Joint Community Development Association (CDA), had come together to fix the road which was reported to have been impassable for many years without intervention from both the local and state government.
The affected communities are Lisado C.D.A, Ifedapo CDA, Ogo-Oluwa CDA, Ire- Akari CDA Liberty CDA, Anu-Olu CDA, Damolapa CDA, Isikalu CDA, Eyinle CDA, Onaseso CDA, Bamgbelu CDA, Agandangbon Phase I CDA and Agandangbon phase II.
It was gathered that each of the houses in the affected communities were levied the sum of N3,000 naira for the execution of the project which also included the construction of drainages.
When our reporter visited the communities recently, the access road has been smoothly graded while motorist and Okada rider now enjoy free ride in connecting the affected communities.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Oladeiibi Joint C.D.A, Comrade Oladele Mufutau Awojobi, in an interview with Oriwu Sun, explained the affected communities took up the responsibility to repair the road due to the hardship facing both vehicular and human movement in and out of the communities.
He stated that, the community had jointly written several letter to the state government seeking intervention over the repair of the road but there was no response while adding that, the Chairman of Ikorodu North LCDA once brought a grader to make the road motorable but that those who handled the job could not finish it as the grader only worked for four hours before it was taken away.
Comrade Awojobi disclosed that, initially, the repaired work was planned to be handled by only one community (Lisado Community) but was later taken up by all the communities connected by the road when it was discovered that the repair work would cost a huge some of N18million. He, however, added that the total sum of N1,050,000 has been spent on the road so far.
He stated further, that they have only carried out a mere palliative measure of the road to reduce the hardship being faced by the resident and imploed both local and state government to urgently help them in fixing the road before the commencement of the raining season.
The chairman also recalled some of the challenges faced in carrying out the repair work. Among these seeking permit from the Nigeria Gas Association Company, to relocate the gas pipeline which passes through the road, refusal of resident to pay the repair levy due to past experience and the liability to get support from the government.
He also mentioned the issue of estimated bill by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) as another challenge facing the communities.
He explained that the power company are fund of giving crazy bill to resident despite not enjoying regular power supply, while their request for prepaid metre are left unattended to as the company insisted that they must pay N100,000 each for the metre which according to him, are supposed to be given free.
Comrade Awojobi appealed to the government to help in prevailing on the electricity company to distribute prepaid metre free consumers to prevent them from paying for electricity they do not use.
More so, a resident of one of the community, who sells foods along the road, Mrs. Monsurat Alimi while speaking briefly with our reporter expressed her joy over the repaired of the road which she said has caused a lot of hardship to the people.
She commended, the Joint CDA for repairing the road and providing drainage as well as for contracting water tanker to let the road in order to reduce the dust.
Another resident, Mr. Ope Makinde while narrating his experience, said he had once fallen off from a moving motorcycle while returning from work and almost broke his leg due to the bad condition of the road, he added that several motorist and Okada rider had also been robbed by thieves while driving slowly to avoid the pot holes on the road.
While commending the executive of Oladeribi Joint CDA for mobilizing resident to contribute money to make the road motorable while imploring the government to urgently assist in carrying out a complete construction work.
