The residents of Teledalase Community Development Association, Maidan Orile, in the Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area, have appealed to the Lagos State Government to help reconstruct the collapsed Maidan Bridge and also provide a motorable road for them.
PUNCH Metro gathered that commuters including schoolchildren were going through a harrowing experience accessing the other communities since the link bridge collapsed on July 8, 2022, due to a downpour.
Our correspondent who visited the area on Monday reported that the link bridge connects four CDAs to the other eight in the Kosofe LGA and is also a link road close to the health centre and the Maidan Primary School in Mile 12. In order to access these other areas and communities, residents would have to enter boats.
The Chairman of the Teledalase CDA, Maidan Orile, Ovie Nnejede, who spoke to our correspondent, said they had written several letters requesting the state government to reconstruct the bridge as well as provide a motorable road for them but had not got any feedback yet.
He said, “I am in charge of this affected bridge. I make sure that children go to school, and traders going to the market do so peacefully. Since the bridge got spoilt, over a year ago, since June 8, 2022, we have been using boats to cross to the other side of the community.
“All the while, we move the children in the morning and at night. There is usually a very long queue, especially for those who are waiting for the boat to come and pick them to the other side of the community. It is usually stressful.
“We have been having some limitations especially when the bridge collapsed last year, the chairman of Ikosi LCDA even visited. We made a series of complaints and had written a series of letters to Alausa, and we wrote to see the governor. But we have not seen any positive response per se as of now.
“This is the major entry point into about eight CDAs. We have another entry point through Owede which is motorable, but this is the easiest route down to Mile 12 under the bridge and the closest too.”
He lamented that they would not only want the link bridge to be fixed but also want a motorable road where vehicles could ply.
“We want a motorable road. Before now, we had a foot bridge which we are now standing on. The earlier construction was done by the military government. It collapsed, and the community repaired it until it collapsed again last year. Let the Lagos State Government give us a motorable road, not a footbridge anymore where cars and busses can ply.”
The vice chairman of the CDA, Alfa Lukman Asunre, also lamented that both the state and federal governments had abandoned them to their plights, adding that they were usually scared of the safety of their children whenever they left for school in the morning using the canoe.
“I am the vice chairman of Teledalase. What our community is expecting from the government is that bridge.
“We are begging the government to help us solve this problem so that we can live a peaceful life. Whenever our children go to school, we’re usually afraid and on the lookout when they’re not back. Like now, I’m waiting for the students who are returning from school and my children too, so we beg the government to help us.”
A resident of the area who sells foodstuffs in the Mile 12 market, Rafiu Ojo, said he usually left early and returned early to be able to join the boat on time.
“I have to be here early enough any day I want to get to the market because the queue is usually long and I would do the same in the evening too. Sometimes, I would have to allow the students to go first.
“It is a sorry situation, the government should help out,” he added.
All calls put through to the Director South-West, Federal Ministry of Works, Adedamola Kuti, on Monday, rang out and the messages sent to him were not replied to as of the time of filing this report.
