By Olakunle Olafioye
Commuting along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway is one agonizing experience thousands of road users who ply the road regularly would want the government to take immediate action to ameliorate.
The escalating cost of accommodation in Lagos State has seen thousands of residents relocate to neigbouring Ogun communities of Ota and Ifo in the last few decades even as many of these people still have to shuttle between both states on almost daily basis to go to Lagos to earn their living.
But the deplorable state of this most important road has made life more difficult for them with many resorting to the option of staying back in their places of work only to return home at the weekends.
Sunday Sun correspondent who monitored the state of the road last week reports that ditches, potholes and craters of various magnitudes dotted the expressway thereby making travelling on it a difficult task even as most motorists now resort to making detours, using some alternative inner roads where they are available.
But where there is none, some drivers would rather resort to taking the dangerous option of driving against traffic in attempts to evade the bad portions of the road. Worst hit portions of this ever-busy road include Abule-Egba U-turn-Toll gate axis of the road, Onihale-Ifo axis, Ewkoro- Wasimi axis, among others.
The harrowing experience of road users plying this road is better imagined than experienced.
Yusuf Sanyaolu, an automobile mechanic, who lives at Pakoto, Ifo, but has his workshop at Ipaja area of Lagos, said that he goes home only for the weekends and returns to his workshop every Tuesday as a way of escaping the daily agonizing experience of having to commute between Ifo and Lagos.
“Traveling between Ifo and Abule Egba, under normal circumstances, should not take more than 40 minutes or at most one hour. But because of the terrible condition of the road one may end up spending two to three hours, which, of course, partly necessitates the high transport fares on the route. This is why I stay back at my workshop from Tuesday to Saturday and return home on Saturdays,” he said.
Sanyaolu said that he finds it very agonizing abandoning his family every week for work.
“I do not like the idea at all because it hurts me greatly to realize that my role as a father has been limited to just providing money for the family because of the failure of the government to live up to its responsibility,” he lamented.
Abandoning one’s family like Sanyaolu is not an option many people will embrace.
Mrs Folashade Fadairo runs a provision store at Alakuko. And since she relocated to Onihale in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, travelling between her residence in Ogun State and business outlet in Lagos has been part of her daily routine.
She, however, confessed that making the trips daily is tiresome especially now that several portions of the road are becoming almost impassable.
“The bad state of the road from Onihale down to Alakuko is very terrible. Ordinarily, the journey should not exceed 25 to 35 minutes, but the state of the road makes it difficult to travel hence you end up spending almost one hour coming here from Onihale to Alakuko daily. it is very tiring and it costs more in terms of transport fare,” Mrs Fadairo said.
Motorists plying the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway said that the deplorable state of the road is a major source of headache to them as it impacts negatively on their vehicles and their take home.
Besides, having to make fewer trips, commercial vehicle drivers plying the route said that the condition of the road is also responsible for their constant visits to mechanic workshops as their vehicles break down often.
A commercial bus driver who identified himself as Tajudeen Olawoyin told Sunday Sun that the poor state of the road has grounded some buses plying the route.
“Most drivers plying the road are not happy that the government is not doing anything to ease the pains of the people using the road because it is causing a lot of damage to their vehicles. In addition to this, it is also slowing us down because we have to move at snail pace when navigating the bad portions of the road. This prolongs the trips and reduces the number of trips we are able to cover on a daily basis,” he said.
The Abule Egba U-turn-Tollgate stretch of the road down to Iyana-Ilogbo has in recent months become notorious for drivers who drive against traffic with its attendant carnage.
Those who use the route regularly said that accidents claiming lives of pedestrians have become regular occurrences on the road.
Shokunbi Sadiq, a tricycle operator, plying the Tollgate-Ifo stretch of the road said that no fewer than five people have lost their lives on this stretch of the road in the last few weeks as most motorists resort to driving against traffic in a bid to evade failed portions of the road and the attendant traffic snarl.
According to him, the most recent of these unfortunate accidents happened about two weeks ago, claiming the life of a purdah.
“The accident had happened before I got there. The victim who was a purdah was said to be trying to cross the road at Iyana-Ilogbo Bus Stop. And it was because the driver was driving against the traffic in a bid to evade the bad portion of the road. It is saddening to see a major road like this becoming almost impassable. The government must do something urgently to fix the road and save the people from the danger posed by one-way drivers,” he stated.
Some commuters who also expressed their displeasure over the deplorable condition of the road said that passengers are being made to pay for the failure of the government to live up to its responsibility of fixing the road.
“Sometimes you spend hours at the bus stop before getting a bus to convey you to your destination because most drivers are avoiding the road. But when you are lucky to get one, you are slammed with prohibitive fare. Imagine having to pay N500 as transport fare for a trip between Kola and Agege because the driver wants to meet up his daily delivery obligation to the vehicle owner despite making fewer trips. The distance between Agege and Kola was N200 before the removal of subsidy, but now we pay between N400 and N500 because only a few drivers are willing to ply the road; others avoid it like a plague,” a passenger, who simply identified himself as Atinuke, said.
The Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway has been in deplorable condition for over a decade.
In September 2021, the then Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, announced the intention of the Federal Government to review the contract for the reconstruction of the road. Fashola said that the road project, which was inherited from the previous administration, was initially awarded in 2000 at the contract sum of N6 billion. At the time of Fashola’s announcement, N56 billion was required to complete the project.
But the road was never completed, despite the Federal Government insisting that the contract has been awarded.
The failure to complete the road means hardship for motorists who ply the road daily.
Due to its complete failure and total collapse, motorists go through harrowing experiences manoeuvring gullies and craters deep enough to subsume trailers thereby paving the way for one-way driving, which is now common on the road, with the attendant risk of head-on collisions.
Following the series of protests over the poor state of the road early last year, the Ogun State government applied to the Federal Government seeking approval for the construction of the road and gleefully announced that it had received the approval to begin work on the road.
But almost six months after the approval was given, motorists are yet to heave a sigh of relief as the road continues to deteriorate leaving road users with horrible tales to tell about it.
Reacting to enquiry by Sunday Sun on reason for the delay in the commencement of work on the road, Special Adviser on Media to the Ogun State governor, Kayode Akinmade said that the state government was still expecting the final nod from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“The procedure for the concession is not complete without FEC’s extract paper. After deliberation and approval, the FEC will issue an extract from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation transferring the road to the Ogun State government,” Akinmade said.
By Olakunle Olafioye
Commuting along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway is one agonizing experience thousands of road users who ply the road regularly would want the government to take immediate action to ameliorate.
The escalating cost of accommodation in Lagos State has seen thousands of residents relocate to neigbouring Ogun communities of Ota and Ifo in the last few decades even as many of these people still have to shuttle between both states on almost daily basis to go to Lagos to earn their living.
But the deplorable state of this most important road has made life more difficult for them with many resorting to the option of staying back in their places of work only to return home at the weekends.
Sunday Sun correspondent who monitored the state of the road last week reports that ditches, potholes and craters of various magnitudes dotted the expressway thereby making travelling on it a difficult task even as most motorists now resort to making detours, using some alternative inner roads where they are available.
But where there is none, some drivers would rather resort to taking the dangerous option of driving against traffic in attempts to evade the bad portions of the road. Worst hit portions of this ever-busy road include Abule-Egba U-turn-Toll gate axis of the road, Onihale-Ifo axis, Ewkoro- Wasimi axis, among others.
The harrowing experience of road users plying this road is better imagined than experienced.
Yusuf Sanyaolu, an automobile mechanic, who lives at Pakoto, Ifo, but has his workshop at Ipaja area of Lagos, said that he goes home only for the weekends and returns to his workshop every Tuesday as a way of escaping the daily agonizing experience of having to commute between Ifo and Lagos.
“Traveling between Ifo and Abule Egba, under normal circumstances, should not take more than 40 minutes or at most one hour. But because of the terrible condition of the road one may end up spending two to three hours, which, of course, partly necessitates the high transport fares on the route. This is why I stay back at my workshop from Tuesday to Saturday and return home on Saturdays,” he said.
Sanyaolu said that he finds it very agonizing abandoning his family every week for work.
“I do not like the idea at all because it hurts me greatly to realize that my role as a father has been limited to just providing money for the family because of the failure of the government to live up to its responsibility,” he lamented.
Abandoning one’s family like Sanyaolu is not an option many people will embrace.
Mrs Folashade Fadairo runs a provision store at Alakuko. And since she relocated to Onihale in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, travelling between her residence in Ogun State and business outlet in Lagos has been part of her daily routine.
She, however, confessed that making the trips daily is tiresome especially now that several portions of the road are becoming almost impassable.
“The bad state of the road from Onihale down to Alakuko is very terrible. Ordinarily, the journey should not exceed 25 to 35 minutes, but the state of the road makes it difficult to travel hence you end up spending almost one hour coming here from Onihale to Alakuko daily. it is very tiring and it costs more in terms of transport fare,” Mrs Fadairo said.
Motorists plying the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway said that the deplorable state of the road is a major source of headache to them as it impacts negatively on their vehicles and their take home.
Besides, having to make fewer trips, commercial vehicle drivers plying the route said that the condition of the road is also responsible for their constant visits to mechanic workshops as their vehicles break down often.
A commercial bus driver who identified himself as Tajudeen Olawoyin told Sunday Sun that the poor state of the road has grounded some buses plying the route.
“Most drivers plying the road are not happy that the government is not doing anything to ease the pains of the people using the road because it is causing a lot of damage to their vehicles. In addition to this, it is also slowing us down because we have to move at snail pace when navigating the bad portions of the road. This prolongs the trips and reduces the number of trips we are able to cover on a daily basis,” he said.
The Abule Egba U-turn-Tollgate stretch of the road down to Iyana-Ilogbo has in recent months become notorious for drivers who drive against traffic with its attendant carnage.
Those who use the route regularly said that accidents claiming lives of pedestrians have become regular occurrences on the road.
Shokunbi Sadiq, a tricycle operator, plying the Tollgate-Ifo stretch of the road said that no fewer than five people have lost their lives on this stretch of the road in the last few weeks as most motorists resort to driving against traffic in a bid to evade failed portions of the road and the attendant traffic snarl.
According to him, the most recent of these unfortunate accidents happened about two weeks ago, claiming the life of a purdah.
“The accident had happened before I got there. The victim who was a purdah was said to be trying to cross the road at Iyana-Ilogbo Bus Stop. And it was because the driver was driving against the traffic in a bid to evade the bad portion of the road. It is saddening to see a major road like this becoming almost impassable. The government must do something urgently to fix the road and save the people from the danger posed by one-way drivers,” he stated.
Some commuters who also expressed their displeasure over the deplorable condition of the road said that passengers are being made to pay for the failure of the government to live up to its responsibility of fixing the road.
“Sometimes you spend hours at the bus stop before getting a bus to convey you to your destination because most drivers are avoiding the road. But when you are lucky to get one, you are slammed with prohibitive fare. Imagine having to pay N500 as transport fare for a trip between Kola and Agege because the driver wants to meet up his daily delivery obligation to the vehicle owner despite making fewer trips. The distance between Agege and Kola was N200 before the removal of subsidy, but now we pay between N400 and N500 because only a few drivers are willing to ply the road; others avoid it like a plague,” a passenger, who simply identified himself as Atinuke, said.
The Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway has been in deplorable condition for over a decade.
In September 2021, the then Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, announced the intention of the Federal Government to review the contract for the reconstruction of the road. Fashola said that the road project, which was inherited from the previous administration, was initially awarded in 2000 at the contract sum of N6 billion. At the time of Fashola’s announcement, N56 billion was required to complete the project.
But the road was never completed, despite the Federal Government insisting that the contract has been awarded.
The failure to complete the road means hardship for motorists who ply the road daily.
Due to its complete failure and total collapse, motorists go through harrowing experiences manoeuvring gullies and craters deep enough to subsume trailers thereby paving the way for one-way driving, which is now common on the road, with the attendant risk of head-on collisions.
Following the series of protests over the poor state of the road early last year, the Ogun State government applied to the Federal Government seeking approval for the construction of the road and gleefully announced that it had received the approval to begin work on the road.
But almost six months after the approval was given, motorists are yet to heave a sigh of relief as the road continues to deteriorate leaving road users with horrible tales to tell about it.
Reacting to enquiry by Sunday Sun on reason for the delay in the commencement of work on the road, Special Adviser on Media to the Ogun State governor, Kayode Akinmade said that the state government was still expecting the final nod from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“The procedure for the concession is not complete without FEC’s extract paper. After deliberation and approval, the FEC will issue an extract from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation transferring the road to the Ogun State government,” Akinmade said.