CDWR Demands immediate action to make Ogun roads safe
After needless deaths on the newly rehabilitated portions of Ikangba/Agoro road(old Lagos/Benin road) the Dapo Abiodun government should provide speed breakers, lighting and road signs without delay to save lives.
CDWR calls on residents to organize mass actions to compel the government to do the needful.
The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), Ogun State chapter, wishes to draw the attention of the state government and governor to the needless deaths currently being recorded on the newly rehabilitated portions of Ikangba/Agoro axis of the Old Lagos/Benin road, occasioned by lack of speed breakers, lightning and traffic signs on the road. We call for the immediate provisions of speed breakers, lighting and traffic signs to save residents, motorists, commuters and other road users from the needless loss of lives and debilitating injuries currently being suffered due to countless fatal accidents on the route.
Sadly, CDWR recalls that between the months of February, 2025, when the rehabilitated portions of the road (Obalende, Olorunsogo, Ikangba Housing and Ikangba Town) were completed, and now four (4) lives have been lost and many residents and other road users sustaining serious injuries, due to accidents on different occasions involving vehicles, tricycles and motorbikes.
Regrettably, those that have lost their lives thus far on the road include, Abiodun Oyedele (63yrs) male, popularly know as Oyeolorun a carpenter and security guard in one of the numerous enterprises located along that route, who died in February; Abiodun Lawal (40yrs) male, a local hunter and motorcycle(Okada) rider, who plied Obalende/Ikangba/Agoro and Okun-Owa, he died in March due to serious injuries he sustained from an accident involving himself and an articulated vehicle; Niyi Ige (42yrs) male, a pig farmer and tricycle rider, who also died from injuries in March,2025 from an accident involving himself and another vehicle popularly know as Kurupe); and Micheal Adewale (25yrs) male, who worked in a fish farm, he died on the spot from accident involving two motorbikes and car on 26th April,2025!
The CDWR notes that, while in some instances over-speeding couldn’t have been ruled out on the part of some of the victims, however, these deaths could largely have been prevented if speed breakers like bumps and humps had been constructed by the government. This is in addition to the provisions of lighting and road signs to also caution the road users, which are conspicuously missing presently on the road. The CDWR commiserates with the deceased families over the loss of their loved one, and sympathises with those who have sustained different degrees of injury. We demand that the Dapo Abiodun-led government immediately embarks on the provisions of the aforementioned facilities so as to stop further carnage on the said road.
All these have again underscored the shabby and careless attitude of the Dapo Abiodun administration towards the suffering of the poor working masses majority across the state. The Ikangba/Agoro axis of the Old Lagos/Benin road like many others across the state has been in deplorable conditions for many years. This is despite the fact that the former governor Ibikunle Amosun was said to have awarded the construction contract to contractors, who allegedly collected mobilization fee and abandoned it in worse condition, after demolition of properties. This led residents to resort to self help to make the road passable, while at the same time organized and embarked on a series of mass actions including protests and media campaigns in conjunction with the CDWR, to demand that the government fix the road. These struggles of many years would later yield results in 2024, when the rehabilitation of the road begun.
Sadly to note however, that the contractors handling the road projects were never known as the site officers kept mute when the delegation of the residents approached them to share concerns regarding the ongoing works, and the need to ensure high quality job, and the provisions of speed breakers, lighting and road signs at the completion of the rehabilitation project. Nonetheless, the site officers assured the residents that their concerns would be addressed adequately.
The CDWR also issued a press statement regarding these concerns and the need for them to be looked into. But unfortunately, these concerns were left unattended to, and the contractors left the sites even without completing the rehabilitation of the road as originally earmarked. Before they eventually left the sites, the residents had called attention to the concerns raised initially, only for them to be told, that they, field workers, were not provided with enough materials to accomplish their jobs, and that the provisions of speed breakers, lightening and road signs were outside their job descriptions!
Till date, the names of the contractors that handled the road rehabilitation, the institution(s) that awarded the contracts, the contract/project specifications including lengths/kilometers awarded and executed and the costs of the entire road project remain shrouded in secrecy. Furthermore, no regulatory agencies tasked with quality control even visited project sites before, during and after the rehabilitation works to our knowledge to ensure proper things were done and universe standard are strictly adhered to.
This is one of the reasons the CDWR always demands that contract system be abolished, as they are ridden and riddled with corruption through contract inflations that are conduits for corrupt enrichments for both political office holders and their private business collaborators. We insist that adequately funded public works departments with the provisions of modern machineries and equipment, staffed with well trained and remunerated professionals should be used to execute all public projects, under the democratic management of both workers and the communities where the projects are domiciled. This will ensure cost effective, people-centered public projects executions that meet universe standards.
The CDWR, therefore, reiterates its call on the state government to as a matter of urgency, begin the immediate provision of speed breakers, lightning and road signs to stop further loss of lives on Ikangba/Agoro road. This, more than ever before, becomes very germane as school children resume schools. Given that this route is populated with both public and private schools, whose pupils oftentimes walk to schools because their parents can’t afford their transport fares, due to the current worsening economic hardship and cost of living crises, occasioned by the government’s anti-poor policies including fuel subsidy removal, hike in electricity tariff, among others. Some of these schools located along this road include Queens Juniorates, Erelu/Ikangba primary school, Ikangba High School, Anglican Girls’ Secondary Schools (both public and private) among others, whose pupils’ lives are presently at risks, due to non-provision of road signs to caution motorists and speed breakers to control and limit the acceleration of vehicular movement.
In any event, should the state government fail to heed this call as usual, when it concerns the needs and wellbeing of the mass majority, the residents of Obalende, Olorunsogo Ikangba Housing, Ikangba and Agoro Towns should not hesitate to take their destiny into their own hands by organizing and mobilizing themselves for mass actions, including protests, rallies, media campaigns etc to compel the Dapo Abiodun government to do the needful, so as to prevent further loss of precious lives on this route. A stich in time saves nine.
Eko John Nicholas
Coordinator CDWR Ogun State chapter.
08022634850
Email [email protected]