Residents of Tanke/Oke-Odo, a community in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State have cried out over the deplorable state of their road.
The road which links about 20 agrarian communities has been in a deplorable state for many years prompting a recent intervention by the indigenes to carry out some repairs.
Some of the communities connected by the road include Masudo, Agbo, Gago, Jalala, Balogun Okoomo, Aleniboro, Agbede, Gaa-Ajanaku, Fajeromi, Agunbiade, Ago, Asufa, Ojutaye, Suruge, Bolorunduro, Ole-meta, Amayo and Gaa-Akanbi.
Issa Olayinka, a resident of one of the communities who spoke with North Central Trust, said the state of the road and those of other communities in the area was worrying.
Olayinka said, “You can see I am coming from farm; which is our major occupation. But the state of the road is seriously affecting our farming business.
“It’s not in a good state has made transportation of our farm produce to nearby markets like Ganmo difficult and expensive. Many drivers would not want to take the farmers and their produce because of the hazard and damage it will cause to their vehicles.’’
It was gathered that most of the drivers have hiked their fares 100 per cent from N2,000 to N4,000 to transport produce out of farms.
Another resident, Wahab Ayinde, said although the area was a residential district for students of the University of Ilorin, the bad road was forcing them to relocate to a distance far from their campus.
He said, “This has led to great losses for the owners or landlords of hostels in these communities. There are many rooms without tenants.”
For his part, Isiaka Aribidesi, a block industry owner and the Magaji of Balogun Community, Tanke Oke-Odo, the bad state of the road has brought economic setback to his business.
He said, “People are not using this road again because of its horrible condition. I own a block industry in this community and this road is really affecting my business.
“We usually lose most of the blocks we transport through the road for delivery to our customers.”
A 72-year-old resident of the area, Abubakar Issa, said the people of the communities had made effort and employed all possible ways to seek help from the government since 1976 when they first settled in the area.
Issa said, “But for 45 years now, despite our self-effort and cry to the government, our expectation has not yet materialised for the rehabilitation of the road.
“This road is denying us comfortable life and we always feel neglected and abandoned as Kwarans because of its poor condition.
“Our socio-economic development has been seriously affected. We are begging the government to please come to our rescue and end our years of suffering.”
The Chief Imam of Jalala Comunity, Tanke Oke-Odo, Alhaji Kareem Jalala, told this reporter that over N300,000 was raised by the people for the onstruction of a culvert at the entrance of the road.
He said, “We are building the culvert to replace the damaged one in order to control flooding, especially during the rainy season.
“We are left with no option than to levy everybody in the communities for financial support to get the project done. This will enable us construct the culvert while waiting for the much needed intervention of the government.”
When contacted, the Kwara State Commissioner for Works, Mr Rotimi Iliasu, said, “Please, I am driving. If I have a response I will send it to you maybe through the press secretary of the ministry.”
He was, however, yet to do so before the filing of this report.
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