Since the raining season commenced, commuting has become a scary adventure for residents of the Amuwo-Odofin LGA, Lagos state.
Mile2-Badagry expressway and Oshodi-Apapa expressway, the two major road networks linking the LGA and other axis has become a thorn on the flesh for residents in that axis, especially those at Festac Town, Mile 2, Orile and Badagry.
With heavy flooding worsened by persistent rainfall, truck and trailers taking over the roads leading to prolonged commuting time and spike in robberies along the road networks, Amuwo-Odofin residents are being subjected to horrible experiences daily.
The failed and deplorable state of the roads have become a nightmare to the extent that you cannot do a straight 80KM/H for 10 minutes from Orile to Mile2, Mile2 to Badagry.
Traffic stretches from Cele Bus stop along Oshodi-Apapa to Mile-2 end of the road, which also affects the Lagos Badagry Expressway from Alakija to Mile-2 end.
The four-lane road has been narrowed down to a single lane for all kinds of vehicles in an attempt to avoid the wide potholes on the roads covered by the flood.
The drainage system is also not functioning as they have been clogged up with various impediments, thereby impeding the free flow of water.
Mile2-Badagry Axis
The traffic which translates to increase in commute time is due to a major failed portion of the Mile 2-Badagry Expressway under the Mile 2 pedestrian bridge, which has continued to compound he sufferings of the road users along the route.
Asides from long commute time, the bad spot on the axis has seen to cause a lot of truck-related accidents which has claimed uncountable number of innocent lives.
The rains have not helped matters but rather have amplified the situation of the route, flooding the road to the extent that even sports utility vehicles, SUV, cannot wade through it.
Buses, cars, cabs, and container trunks alike all have to pick a gully, among multiple, to ply at a time, spelling doom to the commuters as as cars breakdown or trucks tumble mid-road – both worsening already bad congestion.
Even the newly-constructed middle lane of the route, which is yet to be commissioned, has become a deathtrap to many motorists and their vehicles.
This bad spots have led to increase in commute time which of cause encourages and gives opportunity for bandits to rob successfully.
The inability to fix these developing potholes by the government has led to craters and gullies that have made the road almost impassable.
Oshodi-Apapa Expressway
With the High influx of tankers and containerised trucks spilling over to Oshodi-Apapa Express road, commuters who are majorly residents in the LGA have been subjected to horrible experiences due to the deplorable state of the roads as motorists get stranded for several hours in gridlock.
The current situation has been further compounded by heavy flooding as a result of persistent rainfall in the state which made both sides of the road impassable for motorists.
These routes have become a huge nightmare to commuters, motorists and most especially residents of the Amuwo-Odofin LG.
The rains have exposed the real state of the road networks, shoddy repairs and poor network making free movement become restricted.
Horrible Experiences
Mr John a trader and resident complained bitterly of how he has to spend at least 3 – 4 hours from Oluti to Mile 2 which takes 5 – 10 Minutes.
Vanguard motoring team who also visited the axis to access to dilapidated state of the road spoke to a truck driver who rather remains anonymous,
He explained that the only saving grace on the route is the dilapidated Old Ojo Road off the expressway, though at a high risk.
He said:
“Often, we have to pay some amount of money to area boys before they would allow us to pass through the road. We part with as much as N2,000 on such illegal toll gates or risk losing some of our goods if we can’t afford the toll.
“These area boys claim to be working for the local government and could treat you the way they like. Even at that, you could spend more than three hours to link the expressway again at Mile 2.
Mr Chukwuma Arinze, a businessman who has his shop in the Amuwo LGA Lamented bitterly on his countless experience with armed robbers and bandits on the route.
He said
We are suffering here o . I’ve been robbed severally at various areas on these roads especially in the evening. I’ve been at gunpoint twice and in fact been inflicted injuries several times because of the traffic lock down on the road.
Joy Ibe, a sales executive who works on the island and plies the route daily shared her experience saying ,
The traffic gridlock is unbearable, asides that the pollution and even the exposure to insecurity activated by the continuous traffic is a source of huge concern to me.
Recently, the Vanguard Motoring gathered that a middle-aged man was crushed to death by a trailer on the Mile2-Badagry expressway while trying to navigate the spot. The trailer had rolled backward and smashed the man who was by the roadside.
An eyewitness said the man died on the spot, his blood splashed all over the road.
Mr Chibuzor Okafor, who drives a Toyota Highlander and plies the road to his office at Apapa, told VM team that he had been attacked in the traffic between Oluti and Alakija bus stops a number of times.
He said he was always scared of what could happen anytime he passed through the road. According to him, there is a gang of bad boys who attack road users at this section of the road with all manner of weapons.
The bandits dispossess people of their phones and other valuables.
It's official, Amuwo Odofin, Oriade LCDA and Ojo LGA has the worst roads in @followlasg . Death traps everywhere
— Agk (@flywithagk) June 30, 2020
Oghenekaro Cole, lamented bitterly,
I got home 2:30am, i was stuck in traffic coming from Lagos island at the mile2-Alakija route, It was a scary and exhausting experience, i couldnt even make it to work the next day. We need help
The festaconline ireport team have lost count of reports how many trucks had fallen at the spot and number of people who have died due to the failed spot.
Who To Blame ?
Mr Kayode Opeifa, Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Task Team has attributed the renewed gridlock along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway to the tidal effect of the Atlantic Ocean as a result of persistent rainfall which has left most parts of Lagos flooded.
Opeifa also blamed the gridlock to various potholes along Lagos-Badagry Expressway, on both sides as well as construction work being undertaken by Hi-Tech Construction company.
He said that the backlog of vessels discharged of consignments at the seaport during the lockdown on COVID19 could also be attributed to the current gridlock and congestion at tinCan Island Port Complex, TCIPC, even as the combined traffic personnel deployed to the access road were yet to proffer solution to the perennial gridlock.
From all indication, it was obvious that the Presidential Task Force charged with the responsibility of easing the gridlock along the route had abandoned the post.
Rather, most of them were sighted at Jakande, Mile-Two, One and Otto Whaff bus-stops collecting tolls from defiant truck drivers who attempted to pave their ways into the Ports and tanks farms.
Engr. Kayode Popoola,the Federal Controller of Works in
Lagos, explained to the VM team that the Federal Government had over the past carried out palliative works on federal roads in Lagos.
According to him, several times after such repairs, the rains come and wash away the palliative works, thereby resulting to waste of fund on the part of government.
He regretted that since the fund is not readily available to continue to carry out the repairs that would last for a long time, government had decided not to do further palliative works on roads that have been awarded for reconstruction, which is the permanent solution.
He appealed to motorists to wait for the total reconstruction, which is the permanent solution.
Blames have been shifted back and forth from the Lagos State government officials over whose responsibility it is to carry palliative intervention on the failed portions of the road.
Mr. Gani Lawal, the Public Affairs Officer of the Lagos State Public Works Corporations, explained that the rehabilitation of the failed axis is not within the scope of their agency.
Worst off areas in Lagos are the perennial gridlock on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, and Lagos Badagry Expressway occasioned by failed road which has left road users, particularly, tankers and articulated vehicles along the axis prone to disasters.
That Lagos federal and state roads are dilapidated and ramshackle, rickety and run down is a coated statement of facts. Federal roads in Lagos with emphasis are death traps and a huge shame to the nation’s economic hub and a former federal capital territory.
A walk or 10 minutes drive through any federal road in Lagos would be met with a crippling gridlock occasioned by failed portions and broom induced floods.
Illustratively, you cannot do a straight 80KM/H for 10 minutes from Orile to Mile2, Mile2 to Badagry. This area seems to be the worst of all.
About a year ago, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, while flagging off the continuation of the reconstruction of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway at the International Trade Fair Complex in Lagos, urged residents to cooperate with road contractors and help monitor the continuation of the reconstruction of the road to make the work easier for quick delivery and for the benefit of residents, but the situation of the road has not changed for good.
We are calling on all the appropriate authorities to fix the damaged parts of the road as soon as possible to ease the current living condition of residents and commuters in the axis.