Agony On Shagamu-ogijo mosinmi-ikorodu Road

Naturally, I know the federal government is incompetent, so I won't bother to put much blame on them. But I don't know why Ogun state and Lagos state government also kept ignoring the road, like it is not in their states.
This road is the worst major road I have seen in the SouthWest

APPARENTLY, many Nigerians are not aware that the 25-kilometre Shagamu-Ogijo-Mosinmi-Ikorodu Road was the first major expressway that linked Lagos State, the commercial nerve of the nation, to other states and indeed, other West Africa countries.

 Constructed in 1962 by the Western Region government, before the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was built under the military administration, the road has served as the major route from Lagos through Shagamu, Ogijo and Ikorodu. But today, the same road, which is an alternative route to Lagos, apart from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, remains a shadow of itself.

  As some of the road -users put it: “It is appalling that the once vibrant road remains without any major maintenance for over 51 years, after its construction.”

  It is, indeed, a road that depicts rot in the entire country, “where necessary and vibrant institutions are left to rot.”

 According to a commercial driver, Salisu Ajayi, “The Shagamu-Ogijo-Mosinmi-Ikorodu Road could be best described as a death trap, where  many have died, property worth billions of naira destroyed and several man hours wasted in harrowing traffic, all due to its deplorable state.”

  Unfortunately, the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is at present carrying out some palliative repair of the road, “Is that what we need now on a road that is in a total state of collapse?” a road-user asked.

 Many commuters plying the road, while commending the Federal Government for reconstructing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway with an additional one lane, expressed dissatisfaction over the complete neglect of Shagamu-Ogijo-Mosinmi-Ikorodu Road. To majority of them: “There is nothing to rejoice over because the additional one lane will soon take us back to where we were.”

 The growing population, new property, which now spread from Ikorodu through Odogunyan, Ogijo, Simawa,

Mosinmi to Shagamu towns, bring to question: “Why should any nation, which cares about the well-being and security of her citizens and development, abandon such strategic and important road to become an eyesore and a death trap?”

 Recurrent disaster and pains commuters go through while plying the roads reveal that at any drop of rainfall, numerous portions of the road, would become  a “sea”.

  “From Odogunyan to PZ, Itaoluwo, Ogijo to Lukosi are overtaken by flood. Vehicular movements also become impossible. Many calamities befall commuters on the road as school children were sometimes swept by floodwater.

 On June 10, two children were reportedly swept away by the flood along the road.”

  Describing another portion of the road, which a commuter referred to as ‘junction of disaster’ a few meters before Ogijo Bus Stop, Ogun State axis, a tanker driver, Rafiu Aremu, said: “Hardly a week would pass away without one or two tankers loaded with fuel or other articulated vehicle somersaulting here due to the bad state.”

  [b]The Guardian further gathered that on several ocassions, many articulated vehicles had rolled back and crushed vehicles coming behind while trying to climb the hilly part of the road.

 A pregnant woman was once crushed to death inside her car when a tanker that was trying to climb one of the hilly parts of the road rolled back and crushed her.[b]  Some federal and state institutions situated along the axis include the Lagos State Polytechnic, Lagos State Farm Estate, PZ, Lagos Waste to Wealth Fertilizer Company, Larfarge Cement Company among others.

 These explain the density of population and vehicular moment on the road.

  The lawmaker representing Ikorodu in the House of Representatives, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who spoke with The Guardian on the state of the road, said it was disheartening to see a road like this in Nigeria in 21st Century. 

 Dabiri-Erewa added that the lawmakers representing Lagos and Ogun states were not resting on their oars in the National Assembly.

   The Senator, representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Gbenga Ashafa also described the state of road as appalling.

Meanwhile, two years ago the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) intervened by constructing a link road from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to the Shagamu-Ogijo-Mosinmi-Ikorodu Road through Lotus-Simawa-Lukosi, which has given motorists and road –users some relief.  

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php/news-metro/128023-agony-on-shagamu-ogijo-mosinmi-ikorodu-road-

One of the most annoying parts of that road is when you have to divert from the road itself and drive through one cement factory to reach the other side.