By Lukman Olabiyi
A failed portion of the Lagos Road by Owode Onirin Bus Stop has been giving millions of motorists and other road users between Ketu and Ikorodu area of Lagos State a daily dose of hell in the past three weeks, Saturday Sun has gathered.
The axis is also a den of traffic robbers, a situation that has worsened the agony of road users.
The failed portion is by NNPC Filling Station, by Owode Onirin Market inward Ikorodu.
The spot has increased the travel time of people plying the route and also made commuters vulnerable to traffic robbers who had turned themselves to monsters on the axis.
Despite the visible presence of two police stations along the express road, situated within the Ketu Bus Stop and Mile 12, daylight robbery is a trademark of the route, as no particular time can be said to be safe for road users to commute. Many have lost their phones and others valuable items to traffic robbers who operate freely without any hindrance or threat by law enforcement personnel.
Speaking to Saturday Sun, Titi, a civil servant whose office is at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa and who resides in Ikorodu, said going to work and coming home had become a nightmare for the past three weeks.
“Before now we were only contending with traffic robbers within Ketu and Irawo, but now the failed portion of the road at Owode, has turned this axis to hell for commuters. We now contend with long travel time and the monsters who terrorise us anytime,” she said.
Jubril, another trader, said he had been robbed of his phones on three occasions, while in the traffic.
“The annoying thing was that the bad portion is only a small place that can be fixed immediately if the authorities are serious,” he said.
But speaking with the reporter, General Manager, Lagos State Public Works Corporation, Olufemi Daramola, said he had already mobilised his men to the spot, assuring that very soon, the failed portion road would be totally repaired.
He said repairing the failed portion of the road was not only what his agency was doing, noting that the cause of the flooding that broke up the road was also being addressed. He said his men were already clearing the drains at the location to ascertain the cause of the failure.