The pains of Lagos floods
By Emmanuel Udom
Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria is in trouble. The rains have caused severe flooding. It may be the commercial nerve center of Nigeria, but some persons living or doing business in ghettoes in the state are certainly not finding it funny.
From Alimosho, Ajegunle, Ikeja, Agege, Abule Egba, Ojokoro, to Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki, Ajah, Obalende, the stories seem to be the same- floods, floods and more floods.
Is it floods of death? This is the question some of us are asking. The government and the ministry in charge of environment are doing their very best to ensure that casualty figures from the torrential rains are low this year. That is, displaced buildings, collapsed fences, drowning etc.
But, the realities along the ever popular Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway show that some parts of the road have collapsed due to pressure from the rains. Ijaiye, Ele Epo, Pleasure, Iyana Ipaja bus-stops along the expressway are the worst hit.
Motorists and commuters were stranded on last Thursday morning, following the torrential rains that cut off the ever busy Lagos Abeokuta Expressway, in Lagos, leading to increase in transport fares charged by commercial buses and motorcyclists
Passengers, who applied the route observed that at Ijaiye bus stop in Lagos, floods was cut off from the entire the entire expressway by the flood, forcing motorists and commuters to a standstill for upward of five hours.
For instance, while commercial motorcycle operators and buses capitalized on the rains to charge passengers N400 and N200 respectively from Sango in Ogun state to Oshiodi in Lagos, BRT kept their charges at the normal rate of between N100 to N150 for the same trip
Akinola Babatunde, a civil servant resident at Sango Ota in Ogun state lamented that he was forced by the rains to spend more than five hours, when the BRT bus he entered got stuck in the floods at Ijaiye bus stop.
My brother, I saw hell, when I eventually arrived at my office at Lagos Island at about 10am, due to go slow triggered by the rains and floods.
This reporter further gathered that the Ile Epo bus stop, near Abule Egba was so flooded that some Mallams capitalized on it to do brisk business by ferrying people from one side of the area to the other for a fee of N50 per trip.
A resident of the area disclosed that most houses along major streets like the old Ota road, Pipeline, Adeshina, Bolatito have been submerged by floods, even as some fences have collapsed due to pressure from the rains
The floods have hit areas like Okota, where the Ago Palace way is said to have shut down, due to the ongoing construction works that has narrowed the road. At the government reservation area in Ikeja, Lagos, most of the streets like Fani Kayode, Isaac John, Akintola, and Bataiye have been submerged by the floods, thereby creating traffic bottle necks in the area, leading to Agege Motor Road.
This reporter, who visited the place on surveillance mission, observed
the drainage system is some parts of Oshiodi, Lagos, Abule Ijesha, Ilasamaja and Abule Egba seem to be so messy that floods may soon take over houses and streets in the area, leading to the loss of lives and properties.
Leave Your Comments