Newscenter Media News Residents, property owners and community leaders along Pakuro-Magbon River road in Obafemi-Owode Local Council of Ogun State have cried out to the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, on the deplorable state of the road which transverses nine communities.
The residents, under two Community Development committees (CDCs), Pakuro Area and Ajumoni Progressive CDCs, at the weekend, held a peaceful rally.
At the rally, they noted that apart from the fact that the road leads to their houses and businesses, it leads to several excavation and dredging sites that generate revenue to the state and local council.
According to them, there are several revenue collecting points where tipper drivers pay money and are ticketed by the authorities, yet no single intervention has been made, except for residents’ contribution, which are used for palliative work on the road yearly.
Lamenting their plight, one of the elders in the area and grand patron of the Pakuro and Ajumoni CDCs, Chief Mukaila Ismaili, appealed to Governor Abiodun to come to their aid.
The septuagenarian said he had never seen government’s presence on the road since he was a child, despite excavating activities of government in the area which damage the road as soon as the communities manage to rehabilitate it.
Chief Ismaili said the communities had called on the Chairman of Obafemi-Owode Local Council without any headway. He said: “Government is getting money from the area because there are people collecting revenue from the tipper people that are spoiling the road on behalf of government, yet we didn’t see the hand of the government
“So, we are begging them. We are the ones maintaining our road. We need their help. The Chairman of the CDC and its members are the only ones helping us. They are the ones we call all the time.”
Also, the Pakuro Community Development Committee, Chairman, Elder Olufemi Samson, said the communities spend over N10 million each year trying to do palliative work on the road.
“We are using this medium, this occasion, to reach out to our Governor, House of Assembly men, and House of Representatives that they should come to our aid, so that they can fix our road because there are so many economic benefits in our domain,” he said.
The Chairman of Ajumoni area CDC, Owolabi Jimoh, said: “We are calling on them to come and help fix our road. We are tired of fixing this road by palliative measures. We call on Governor Dapo Abiodun to come to our rescue in terms of our road.”
On his part, Baale of Pakuro land, Olusegun Falani, urged Governor Dapo Abiodun to help them on this road from Mowe to Magbon. We beg the Government to help us to do the road because cars cannot pass especially, during the rainy season.
Also, vice chairman of Pakuro area CDC. Reverend Olatokunbo Odediya, said the rally was to draw the governor’s attention to the plight of citizens along the axis and the inherent huge economic potential of the road.
He said : “We are the ones who voted for them but we are only holding this rally to appeal to our Governor, our Representatives at the Senate, House of the Representatives, Local Council and the chairman. Sometime ago, we went to Obafemi Owode Local Council Chairman to come to our aid and make the road motorable and conducive for economic activity.
” Even the Government has revenue collection points here. They do come here to collect revenue from those that are digging sand and filling but then they were just passing through and they saw this place was damaged.”
Also, Pakuro Area CDC women representative, Mrs Modupe Bamisaye, said women are mostly hit by the deplorable condition of the road. She lamented that during the rainy season, women in the community cannot access the road to go to the market or the place of work.
” At times, we ride motorcycles and the motorcycle will sink and fall down. It caused an accident. It’s not helping us as women. It’s a problem for our pregnant women to move from one place to another. We don’t have roads to promote our business. The road is affecting our daily lives. We don’t have a good road at all to help us, to help our community in general. I want to use this opportunity to beg our Governor and all our leaders in the state to help us,” she added.
For Ramon Adesina, the Financial Secretary of Ajumoni Progressive CDC, it has been a hectic experience for residents on the road. He recalled how his wife got injured while going to Mowe Market with her three-month-old child at her back..
” The bike was struggling to wade through and they fell inside the mud. The silencer of the bike burned her leg and we nursed the leg for more than three months.
“We also have a pregnant woman from Kara Nla, who fell from bike into the mud somewhere near the Idiroko on her way to Layo clinic in Pakuro because of the bad road. It took the intervention of passers-by to save her life.
” So, we are calling on government to assist us,” he said.
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