Residents of the Ojokoro Low-Cost Housing Estate in Meiran, Lagos, have sent an SOS to the federal government over deaths caused by one-way driving due to failed portions of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
The residents and several other road users appealed in separate interviews on Sunday in Lagos.
The failed portion of the highway begins from the Sango-Otta-bound carriageway around the ‘U’ turn at Abule-Egba, all the way to Toll Gate, the boundary between Lagos and Ogun.
Potholes dot several portions and worsen gridlock, especially with rains and some vehicles resorting to driving against the Oshodi-bound carriageway traffic up to the Toll Gate area.
The service lane of the Oshodi-bound lane around the popular Ile-Epo Market portion on the highway has collapsed.
Rasheed Ejalonibu, chairman, Ojokoro Low-Cost Housing Residents Association, said accidents caused by one-way driving along the Abule-Egba to toll gate corridor were on the rise, with his members as casualties.
“In March, one of our residents was killed by a hit-and-run driver taking one-way. Recently, a boy going to a salon was also killed on the same road.
“We are seriously feeling the pains; if not an accident, early morning robbery takes place because some drivers would not want to follow one way for the danger it entails but get robbed on the bad road by hoodlums,” he said.
Olubowale Kasunmu, the Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), also begged the government to fix the highway quickly.
“Formerly, it was the two lanes, but now, one lane has been fixed, and the other was abandoned, which makes motorists follow a one-way drive to the toll gate from the Meiran axis,” he said.
A civil servant in the community, Ahmed Oyasipe, joined other motorists to appeal to both Lagos State and the federal government to find lasting solutions to the dilapidated road to safeguard lives and property.
Responding, Adedamola Kuti, the South-West director of federal highways, Federal Ministry of Works, said the government had not abandoned the highway.
“Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta, we have not forgotten them, we are having some issues with the contract, and we are trying to resolve the issues surrounding that contract.
“Very soon, we shall resolve the issue surrounding the contract, then we will get back to work.
“The issue is that when the contract was awarded, the scope of work had changed over that period of time.
“We now have more states of disrepair along that axis, and we are trying to, of course, get those planned,” he said.
He explained that because of cost variation in the additional contract, efforts were on towards coming up with a comprehensive request in the form of an augmentation forwarded to the federal government.
He said the ongoing construction achieved 40 per cent completion before the contract review, adding that the increased scope of work necessitated repackaging of the project.
Speaking on the Ota-Idiroko section, he said procedures were still ongoing to help Globacom to take over the reconstruction of the road project under the Tax Credit Scheme of the federal government.
