Moshalashi Idimu: Save our street from total collapse

As the rainy season approaches, residents of Moshalashi Street, in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, are praying for a miracle that would keep their street from totally collapsing from the ravaging flood that plagues the street during seasons like this.

The erosion-hit road, which is almost impassable, was made worse by the rainfall of the last two years.Now, parts of the one-kilometre road are inundated with deep potholes, while the coal tar on other sections have been thoroughly degraded.

A visit to the road first constructed by the military administration of the late Navy Captain Mike Akhigbe in 1988, by The Guardian, revealed that stretches of the road are below the drainage on both sides, a development that facilitates emptying of debris from the drainage into the road.

Not long after it was first constructed, the road began to fail and Oshodi Isolo Local Council, which the area fell into in 1998 graded it. Since then, it was only in 2003 that the local council gave it a facelift.

However, he joy of residents of the street knew no bounds when in 2016, the issue of reconstructing it was broached by the Executive Secretary of the Ejigbo LCDA, Jaiye Alabi. That never happened.

With the present condition of the road, accessing the road leading to Idimu, onward Ikotun or Iyana Ipaja remains a big challenge. In addition to that, the foul smell emanating from pockets of stagnant water on the road, with its attendant health implications often worry residents of the street.

When the LCDA carried out the construction of a health centre on the road, it only worked on the drainage and thereafter left the road in the despicable condition that it has remained till today.

Hassan Abdulsalam, a landlord in the area, regretted that the road project was abandoned midway after the drainage was put in place and work on the health centre completed.

Even the drainage that was somehow fixed then is also giving way now owing to the poor condition of the road. Abdulsalam in decrying the deplorable condition of the road, said during the peak of rainy season, some houses in the area are usually flooded and the road becomes impassable.

He stressed the importance of putting the road back into shape to avert total collapse. Another resident of the area, Yakubu Kudaisi, informed The Guardian that hopes of residents of the road were dashed when the Idimu road project was carried out a few years ago, and Moshalashi Street was discountenanced.

Kudaisi called on Governor Akinwumi Ambode to consider the restoration of the road for the benefit of road users and residents of the community, warning that if the road was not quickly repaired, the problem would spill over to Idimu road.

“If the government fails to repair this road now, Idimu Road will not last. Already mud from this road is gradually degrading Idimu Road. As the main road that links other adjacent streets, those roads already tarred are in danger of imminent collapse,” he said.

A trader in the area, Chukwuebuka Moses, told The Guardian that after the local council effected repair works on the drainage, “they left and we never heard from either the local or state government again regarding the repair of the road.”

Moses lamented that it was after the project was abandoned that adjacent streets including Lafenwa and Coker were tarred, but “they finished those roads and commissioned them while this one was abandoned.”

He appealed to state government to come to their aid by repairing the road ahead of the rainy season, adding that during heavy downpours, businesses in the area suffer as patronage dips.