Agony Of Aboru Residents

Every year, Aboru community in Agbado/Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State Southwest Nigeria is always in the news for the wrong reasons. Either residents of  the area are being swept away by flood or their houses have been submerged. Though the rains have not been particularly heavy recently in Lagos, no fewer than seven persons were swept away by flood in the community around June/July this year. In the last two years, no fewer than 20 people were swept away by flood. This is besides hundreds of lives and families displaced by the flood.

P.M Metro finding shows that until this year, the canal that runs through some parts of the community has never been dredged by either the state or the local government. A leader in the community, Mr. Benson Akhaeze told our correspondents that the reason that canal continued to be a death trap, killing people is because it has become shallow and easily overflow with little rainfall.

“Before now, the state and local governments have never paid attention to this canal that keeps killing our people. Whenever it rains heavily and people get swept away, all that government does is to issue alert that everybody here should pack out. Where do they want us to pack to? All that this place needs is proper dredging and this problem will be over” he said.

P.M News Metro investigation revealed that some portions of the canal which was dredged by the local government this year have already returned back to their former state.

Another resident of the area, Mr Bamidele Oke accused the local government of doing a shoddy  job with the dredging. He said “Can you believe that this canal was dredged this year? As you can see, the sand that was removed and dumped at the side of the canal has already returned into the canal and filled it. This year, about five persons have died in the canal even after the poor dredging”

He appealed to the state government to come to their aid as the flood problem appears to be beyond what the local government could  handle. “I don’t think the LCDA alone can tackle the problem. We need the urgent assistance of the state government, else the canal will continue to claim many lives here,” he said.

Besides flooding, Aboru community according to P.M News Metro findings has one of the worst roads in Lagos State. Only two out of the over 20 major roads in the area are  tarred. The rest are impassable especially whenever it rains. Some residents who own cars in the area told our correspondents that driving through most roads in the area is like hell.

Rasheed Oyeyemi, who resides in Rahaman Street, Aboru said; “I don’t think you can find elsewhere any network of roads as bad as the ones we have here in Aboru. Every week I must visit my mechanic to rectify one fault or the other in my car because of the bad road. Sometimes, I just leave the car at home because using okada appears to be more economical for me than spending huge sums of money every week to fix  my car”

The baale of  Aboru, Chief Salaudeen Bamigbopa told our correspondent that Aboru is a community in Lagos where you cannot find one good road. “Virtually all our roads are bad. The major roads we have here are: Victor Fagbemi, Pipeline, Solanke, Iyalabani, Unity, Holy Timothy, James Ajayi, Bamigbopa, Edun, and Baba Ijesha. None of these roads are tarred. Blaming the LCDA chairman for not doing enough for the community, Chief  Bamigbopa said the local government totally neglected the area in terms of good road networks and other essential amenities. After years of waiting for government attention, Bamigbopa said residents of the community through communal efforts have made unsuccessful attempt to fix the major roads in the area.

The community leader said he has visited the LCDA Chairman who ironically resides in the area, to discuss the issues affecting the community but that each time he made effort, the chairman refused to see him.

“Every time I try to see the chairman, they always tell me he was not around. We were told the contract for one major road has been awarded but we don’t know how true the information is. Government should please come to our aid. There are over 100,000 tax paying residents living in this community, so the state government should not abandon us,” he pleaded.

Besides the problem of perenial flooding and bad roads in Aboru, electricity is still rationed by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN,  in the area. According to P.M News Metro findings, PHCN ration electricity on two-days on and one-day off basis. Residents in the area say the system has perpetually put them into darkness. They appealed to PHCN authority in charge of the area to stop the practice. “We are tired of two-days on and one-day off. With their rationing plan, we don’t even have light for up to 10 days average in a month, yet they charge us on monthly average. PHCN should please give us light whenever it is available,” said Olaitan Rahman, a resident.

—Henry Ojelu & Ayodeji Dedeigbo