Landlords and residents of Onibata community, in the Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State, have cried out for government intervention over the deplorable state of roads in different neighbourhoods in the community.

In a statement by the residents’ association, United Onibata Community, the residents said despite sharing boundaries with Ogundimu, Ajuwon, Alagbole and other communities in Ogun State, the community of about 400,000 people could not boast of good infrastructure and social amenities.

According to the residents, the situation is bad and not something they deserve because they perform their civil obligation and political responsibility.

The statement read in part, “Recently, the rate of accidents in the community is alarming due to the bad state of roads. The roads are so bad that they destroy residents’ vehicles. Lack of social amenities makes life unbearable for the residents of the communities.

“When it rains, the roads become too slippery for vehicles and motorcycles. The residents also have to deal with flooding in their homes.

“Due to the above stated reasons, the community set up a three-man road committee which consists of Pastor A.O Adejokun, Adetayo Adeyanju and Idowu Isajimu in July 2022. The main reason for setting up the committee is to look into the road network in the community.”

The residents urged the state government to address the situation and also create drainage channels to prevent the flooding experienced in the community.

A resident, Tayo Awotunya, who lives in the Londoner area of the community, lamented that whenever it rained, the roads got washed off by erosion.

He added, “The roads get divided into two after a heavy rainfall in the area. Most of the soil on the untarred road in my street gets washed down into the swamp at the extreme end of the street. In other streets, what they suffer is flooding. Sometimes, they get displaced from their homes.”

Another resident who lives on Funsho Oka Street, Bola Adeyemi, said whenever it rained, commercial motorcyclists often turned down passengers’ requests to transport them to the street.

“Their complaint is that the road is usually slippery and difficult heading back up because it is a slope,” she said.

Contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, said residents of the community should lodge an official complaint to the state government.

“Let them file their complaints before the ministry of works and also the agency in charge of drainage. That is the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

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