Community seeks intervention over dredgers’ activities

LANDLORDS and residents of Ajah in Lagos have urged Governor Babajide Sanwo- Olu’s intervention on the illegal activities of sand dredgers.

They alleged that the sand dredgers use their trucks to destroy roads, disrupt movements, and instill psychological trauma on residents, adding that the operators are daily frustrating the state’s urban renewal programme.

In a letter by their lawyer and signed by Cookel Oke George, the residents urged the government to deploy the state’s special task force and KAI Brigade to curtail the excessive activities of the dredgers and their trucks in Ajah, especially on Tunde Afolabi Street.

They also lamented the refusal of the dredging operators to obey an earlier directive to cease operation until a suitable parking arrangement is made for them. The association alleged the recklessness of the truck drivers was endangering lives and properties within the estate.

The letter read in part: “We are solicitors who act on behalf of the landlord and resident association of Tunde Afolabi Street, Ajah, Lagos.

“Be that as it may, it is very crucial that we bring to your attention, a state of emergency in one of the regions, which experienced an enviable urban renewal. “These dredgers were adequately informed to cease operation and so shall it be until they have put in place adequate/ proper parking arrangements for all the tippers serving their interest.

“Sadly and most regrettably, the sand dredging operators have deliberately refused to shut down their sand dredging operations.’

“They have religiously breached the above action point reached. Their actions have frustrated the administration’s effort to free the Ajah interchange and achieve enduring peace.

“Their tippers regularly ply the street on continuous bases. In fact, the residents cannot even drive out of their homes in the morning to work or take their children to school. The truck drivers drive recklessly thereby endangering lives and properties within the estate.”

“This impunity is causing traffic snarl on the Saliu Obodo Road, Gbolagas / Gedegede Road beside Mega Chicken, Ogombo– Sangotedo road.”