Ogun serves abatement notice to dredging firm for degrading road in Magboro

Officials of the Ogun State Ministry of Environment on Wednesday served seven days abatement notice to a dredging company, Capital Waves Nigeria Limited operating in Magboro, Obafemi Owode Local Government for degrading a major road in the area.

Residents of communities in Magboro had cried out to the state government over the alleged degradation of Abule-Oko Road, a major road serving about 10 communities in the area by the dredging company.

The communities, comprising Gaun, New Generation Estate, Peace Garden Estate, Teachers’ Land, Abule-Oko, Unity Estate, Araromi, Pathfinders, Ifesowapo and Glory Land Estate, said the dredging company had made the road in the area unmotorable.

According to the residents of the community, the dredging firm moved to the Ogun River, Gaun town, for dredging activities and due to the presence of the company, over 100 trucks now ply the road everyday and night, causing environmental impact and noise pollution in the area.

The cries of the communities in Magboro led the Ogun State Ministry of Environment to send its officials to access the damage done to the area by the dredging company as alleged in their petition.

The government officials on visiting the dredging site demanded from representatives of the company their Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, which was not provided, but rather a brawl took place.

This forced the government officials to serve the company an abatement notice, ordering the company to come to the ministry with its EIA approval within seven days.

The government said if it failed to do so, the premises would be shutdown, with punishment meted out to the offenders.

The government officials who were not permitted to speak with newsmen because they are civil servants observed that the Abule-Oko road is in deplorable condition.

One of them said with the few minutes spent monitoring activities on the road, about 20 trucks had passed, which he said depreciated the quality of the road.

Earlier, a visit to Abule-Oko Road in Magboro by PM NEWS revealed a dilapidated road as scores of trucks from the dredging company were seen plying the road.

Residents told us that they have been having harrowing experience plying the road, adding that whenever it rained, the road is impassable.

Olanrewaju Opeyemi, a trader lamented the deplorable condition of the road, as it affected her market and those of others.

“The road is seriously bad, if it was yesterday it was worse than this, people don’t buy things from us again, pregnant women are falling down from okadas because the road is bad. Government should come and help us, if rain falls, it is worse than this,” she lamented.

Pastor Kunle Adebanjo, Chairman, Abule-Oko Development  Association said the road is “terribly bad, every year, we grade the road twice through community effort because we don’t feel the impact of government here.

“The dredging company came here and destroyed the road, lots of people find it difficult to pass this road, people selling on the road have locked up their shops due to low patronage,we talked to the dredging company to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to repair the road, but they refused to do it.

“We want government’s intervention, let them talk to the dredging company to do the road for us, they should do CSR for us. The road is important because it serves 10 communities in this area.

“This is the only road people ply to get to their destination. The road is terribly bad, when the dredging company came in with about 200 trucks; they spoilt the road for us. Even okada people charge exorbitant prices because of the bad road.

“We are calling on government to tell these people to fix our road, we have been doing it ourselves. We do this road by community efforts twice a year. We came to fix the road, but the dredging company stopped us,” he said.

Igbayemi Ojo, Chairman Community Development Association, Golden Estate Teachers’ land said he came to the area in 2010, saying that “we have been grading this road twice a year, when the dredgers came, the spoilt the road. I have two cars, I can’t drive them, when it rains, the road is not passable.”