Rainfall: Residents of Ogun communities demand road, bridge completion to avert deaths
Residents of Olambe/Adiyan Alausa communities in the Agbado/Oke Aro Local Council Development Area of Ogun State have cried out as the rainy season begins, calling on the state government to, “as a matter of urgency” complete the rehabilitation of the road and construction of a bridge connecting the Giwa area to their communities to avert deaths.
According to the residents, the damages done by rain in the past, including deaths, vehicle damage and difficulty of movement, could not be surmounted without the quick intervention of the government by repairing the road and completing the construction of the bridge they said link the two communities.
Our correspondent, who visited the communities, observed that the GiwaOlambe community is characterised by potholes and gullies created by erosion, while the road is also untarred. It was also observed that an overhead bridge being constructed at Oju-Odo has been abandoned.
Some boys in the area were sighted using shovels to fill some of the potholes, which allowed vehicle passage, but vehicles from the opposite direction still had to wait for one another. A few vehicles were also seen trapped in the mud.
A resident of the community, Ayo Ajakaiye, told our correspondent that rainfall gives them nightmares as the entire area becomes impassable, both to motorists and pedestrians. According to him, some children returning from school had been carried away by the rampaging floods in the area.
According to Ajakaiye, the overhead bridge linking Giwa and Olambe/ Adiyan is being constructed by the state government. Work on the bridge, he said, began about three years and has been abandoned unfinished.
“Under the overhead bridge, there is a temporary bridge constructed by communal effort so as to create access road for residents, but as I speak with you, the bridge is on the verge of collapsing. In fact, it can sink any moment from now. Everybody passes there with fear in their heart, and that is why we are appealing to the government to come to our aide. We don’t want anybody to die this year as a result of the bad road and uncompleted bridge.
“Last year, a 14-year-old girl slipped during heavy rainfall and fell from the uncompleted bridge into a big canal beside the bridge. Two other children also got drowned during rainfall last year and died,” Ajakaiye said, while urging the state government to repair the roads speedily before the arrival of heavy downpour this year.
Another resident, who is a motorcyclist, Mutiu Olaosebikan, corroborated that heavy rainfall carried children away three times last year, saying the state government must speedily take action to forestall a repeat of such ugly occurrences.
The residents further appealed to the government to make the Primary Health Care Centre in the area more functional by deploying competent hands to work there and attend to emergencies.