Ikeja Residents Want Drainage Completed

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Residents of Onilekere, Onipetesi, Ogunsolu and Abraham Akinola streets as well as Valley Estate along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, have called on Lagos State government to complete the drainage collector that passes through the area to avoid flooding.

The call was made while recounting their experience following the torrential rainfall that led to the flooding of the area recently and attributed the non-completion of the drainage to the cause.

The collector which links Ejigbo canal, according to the residents, also serves canals from Guinness, Anifowose, Local Airport, Agege, Akowonjo, Dopemu and Valley Estate, adding that it now blocked due to its abandonment, thereby making the area to be flooded anytime it rains.

The community also appealed to the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to widen and increase the length of the drainage being constructed in the area.

Mr. Egbedeji Tunji, a resident, described the flood that nearly submerged the area as monumental disaster which can not be quantified.

“The damage done by the flood occasioned by the heavy downpour was a monumental disaster. Fences were brought down and properties destroyed.

“The cause of this is that Lagos State government did not complete the channelisation of the canal. The job was stopped at Mongoro along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and anytime it rains, we are always at the receiving end and it has remained a recurrent event.

“We are appealing to the state government to come back and complete work on the collector and that is the only way we can be free from the menace of flood.”

Egbedeji who claimed to have built the wall fence of his house four times, said the same fence was demolished by the flood as a result of the uncompleted collector and therefore called on the authorities concerned to complete the work to save the situation.

Mr. Matthew Akauemokha, another resident, corroborated Egbedeji’s claim, saying the non-completion has remained a bad omen for them as they always suffer anytime it rains.

On the efforts made to draw the attention of the government to their plight, he said several letters have been written to the state government and the agencies concerned but they were yet to respond to them.

Group Captain Adimula Samuel, a retired Air force officer living in the area, also appealed to the FAAN to consider the volume of water passing through the collector and increase the size of its canal to serve as escape route for flood.

—Paul Sanusi

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