Residents and commercial transporters operating in the Magboro community, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun State have groaned over the bad state of the road connecting their community to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The residents, some of who live in the Powerline, Gasline, Makogi, and Igodo, among other areas in the community, lamented the hardship they had been experiencing while plying the road to navigate their destinations in the community.
During an on-the-spot assessment to examine the condition of the road, our correspondent observed that many potholes on the road usually become worse during the rainy season.
Our correspondent also observed as vehicles driven by motorists got stuck at different parts of the road, right from under the bridge at Magboro Bus Stop.
Speaking with our correspondent, a bus driver, Jamiu Ayeni, who claimed that his bus got stuck in one of the potholes during a downpour over the weekend, said, “I’m tired of plying this road. How much am I collecting from passengers to continue to face this kind of suffering?”
Another driver, who lives in the Gasline Estate, and gave his name simply as Dimeji, lamented spending money on repairing his vehicle that was damaged by the bad road.
He said, “You will end up spending all your earnings to fix your car because of the bad road. You will be surprised that there are many rich and influential people living in this community. I don’t know how they manage the situation because they drive expensive cars.”
The Chairman, Island Community Development Association, under Igodo in the area in the Magboro community, Lanre Taiwo, urged the government led by the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, to assist the community.
Taiwo, on Monday, explained that people in the community had been donating money to facilitate the pouring of asphalt on the road to mitigate the situation.
“As a community, we are trying our best to put some things on the road, but we don’t even see much from the government for now. The road has been like this for like three years. In this area, there is no sign of local government. We are begging them to assist us”, Taiwo said.
He said that the bad condition of the road had been discouraging people from living in the community.
Taiwo added, “We face gridlock on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is terrible, and you come into the area again and meet another bad thing. Before the election, some government officials came to make promises that they would do something about the road, we are still expecting them to fulfil their promise. The Magboro road is supposed to be handled by the state government”.
The Chairman, Obafemi Owode LGA, Adesina Ogunmola said the government had been trying its best, adding that the Magboro Road was among many other community roads that needed government intervention.
Ogunmola said, “We have done our best in terms of road construction and rehabilitation in the Obafemi Owode LGA. Sometimes in January and February, we embarked on massive road construction in terms of grading and giving access roads to communities in the LGA.
“But we cannot embark on the grading of roads because of the rainy period that we are in. We have now set up a committee that will look into roads during the dry season, where grading will commence properly. Magboro is listed among other areas that need government intervention. We are not relenting”.
