Defaced By Nuisance, Lawlessness
constitute a law unto themselves, while residents of the area, including other road users, bear the brunt year- in, year- out.
Many years ago, Pastor Friday Omofuma longed to live in the estate because it was “usually calm, quiet, peaceable and devoid of activities of area boys, and sundry elements that constitute a nuisance in some residential areas.”
Now a landlord in the area, he lamented that the story is changing for the worse.
“I’ve been living around this area for over 20 years. Before now, it was very peaceful, and never witnessed anything close to what we are witnessing. Now the market is spreading fast and consuming parts of the residential area. There are very many parking stores and warehouses springing up here and there. Consequently, the presence of trailers and trucks has become inevitable. The entire area and streets within it have now lost that serenity while all sorts of criminality are being committed,” he lamented.
The Secretary of Omoleran Landlords and Tenants Association, Oluwatosin Owomoyela, who has been residing in the area for 17 years, is bothered by the loss of serenity and the increased level of nuisance in the area presently.
“I’ve been living in Papa Ajao for 17 years. From what was on the ground in the past and from my experience since I arrived here, this area used to be a beautiful, predominantly residential area, which you could describe as European Quarters because it was very quiet, peaceful, and very habitable. It was that kind of settlement. But in the last five to 10 years, the story has changed as a good number of houses have been rented, or sold to traders and other businessmen, who have in turn converted them to either parking stores, mechanic workshops/ sheds, or warehouses. This our street, Omoleran would have been turned into something else if not for the very strong tenants and landlords association that we have. Unfortunately, you cannot sleep with your two eyes closed as ongoing activities have become a nightmare to the residents.
Owomoyela, who said the association is operating under, and in conjunction with Oluwalapa Community Development Association, in explaining efforts to make sanity return to the area said: “We have written several petitions/ letters to the state police command, through the area command here, telling them about the problems that we are facing. For instance, there is a hotel that opened up in the neighborhood a few years ago. When it
was being built, the association expressed its fears to the police, which played it down. But by the time the hotel was fully opened, prostitutes were marauding everywhere, and all the promises that the police gave us when we confronted them with fresh worries have come to naught. But we are still living with these challenges, even though they ( police) come around from time to time to raid bad boys that congregate around the place smoking. Again, a few days after arrests are made, the suspects that were taken away are back in the streets.
On dangers posed by the increasing number of strange faces and activities of prostitutes in the area, the scribe said: “Let us start from the angle of the effects that they have on our children. Children are exposed to what they are not supposed to see as these women just flaunt everything recklessly, if you know what I mean. You also see that apart from everything now being in the open, some men who come to patronise them are also busy smoking cigarettes and Indian hemp publicly. Doing this while the prostitutes go about half- clad is not a good sight for children that are still in their tender ages, especially given the fact that there are schools here. Now, coming to even adult residents, there are up to five times that we’ve had to challenge these prostitutes and their patrons when they encroach into our street with their bad behaviour. We will continue to move against them until they respect the fact that we have the right not to have our senses of decency assaulted.”
Having already severally written to the police, the association, the scribe said would not hesitate to take its complaint to Alausa should matters continue the way that they are.
Said he: “We believe that once we’ve laid our complaints before the police, which is an agency of government, it should be treated expeditiously. That notwithstanding, we are thinking about going to Alausa to lay a formal complaint about all these things that are happening here. Unfortunately, such a serene, quiet, and peaceful environment has been turned into a lousy marketplace where the safety of residents is no longer guaranteed. As an association, we are doing our little bit to ensure that sanity reigns here. We have secured entrances to our street and there are two paid security guards providing service. Whenever we have any issue, we still reach out to the police for assistance, and in fairness to them, most of the time they do come around and restore sanity.
Even though Ajani Abusuga, another resident agrees with Owomoyela that their erstwhile European Quarters is being gradually replaced with a troubled estate, he stressed that
landlords in the area have a major role to play in stemming the tide.
“What we are facing is a clear case of paradise lost, especially now that the market is spreading fast and consuming parts of the residential area. But landlords in the area have a role to play in returning sanity to the area. And that is by not selling their property to the highest bidder, who would convert them to business centres. You would agree with me that this is a tough call to make at this time. The government also should take steps to rein in these traders that have no regard for constituted authorities. If the place was originally designed to be a residential area, the further incursion of the market should be discouraged,” he said.
He insisted that at the rate things are going, “the entire area could be swallowed up by the market sooner or later. Because of the high rate of rural- urban drift many hitherto quiet neighbourhoods are going to become busier and noisier as small and big businesses continue to open up. Rising poverty is also forcing many to sell off inherited property among others.”
Abisuga, however, stressed that it was high time that Mushin Local Council diligently enforced environmental and sanitation laws to stem the excesses of errant businessmen and artisans, whom he said would take over every available space and run down every available facility if they are not called to order, or made to pay for what they have destroyed.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer ( PRO) of Mushin Local Council, Mrs. Funmi Bunmi Mefful, who claimed to be one week in the office said she was yet to be briefed on efforts put in place to return sanity to the area. She promised to contact the council chair and get back to The Guardian on issues raised, including how much the council was realising from the indiscriminate parking of vehicles, as well as why its officials harass private car owners and ignore erring truck drivers in the area. Until press time, she never reverted.