Landlords and residents of Temple Road, Jankara in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area in Ifako-Ijaye Local Government Area of Lagos State, have called on the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to help rehabilitate the road that has been abandoned for years by successive administrations in the state, reports thegazellenews.com.
Temple Road is a major two-kilometre road that connects many roads within Jankara, Lambe, Power line and Agbado-Oja amongst other major communities in the council area.
The road, according to residents and landlords of the area, has been abandoned for years by previous administrations.
They lamented that despite promises to reconstruct the ever busy road nothing has been done by successive administrations.
They cried out that the disrepair state of the road has affected business activities in the area, while some tenants and potential tenants are being discouraged from either renting houses or shops in the area.
A resident of the area, who happened to be the Chairman of Efon-Alaye Landlords Association, Mr Jimoh Olajuwon said the state government has obviously abandoned the residents and landlords of the area to their plight over the poor state of Temple Road.
According to him, “the state government has not deemed it fit to pay a visit to the abandoned road let alone resuming works on it.”
He added that “top Lagos State officials are residents of the area, and they often pass through the road as at when it was still manageable before it degenerated to this impassable state.
“The disrepair state of the road has brought total setback to all business activities in the area, even rents and property have started going down far below their values.”
Another landlord, Mrs Jemilat Jinadu, who has been living in the area since 1985, said, “the government has not been fair to us for decades. No single government’s presence can be seen on the road, despite the fact that I pay my land use charge as at when due”.
Alhaji Nasiru Olasunkanmi, popularly known in the area as Baba Welder, in his comments on the almost impassable state of the road, said since he arrived the area in 1983 that the road has never been tarred or any drainage constructed by both the state and the local governments.
Alhaji Olasunkanmi explained that during the tenure of Hon Benjamin Olabinjo as Chairman of Ojokoro LCDA, the road was graded annually but never fully rehabilitated.
However, since the exit of Olabinjo who is now representative of Ifako-Ijaiye Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, the state of the road has deteriorated.
