Residents of Koju Foam Community, located on the Osogbo-Ikirun road, have cried out that despite several pleas on the effect of flooding caused by the Osogbo-Ikirun road project, nothing has been done by the state government to ameliorate the situation.
They allege that they suffer avoidable inconveniences as a result of flaws on the part of the contractor handling the Osogbo-Ikirun road.
Alade Ogundare, Chairman of the landlord association and other community leaders had revealed in May 2021 that the Osun State Government was aware of their predicament.
According to them, the Commissioner for Works, Oluremi Omowaiye, and his team visited the community in February 2021, where they promised that the state government would immediately come to the aid of the community as soon as possible, especially as the rainy season was about to begin.
Three months after the visit by the Commissioner, they explained that nothing had been done.
A resident, Taiwo Olusesi, stated that it had been a nightmare having to cope with the level of flooding that had overtaken their area.
According to her, “When this happens, it brings about sorrow for us residents. The decision to construct the road is good, but the drainage part of the road construction has been badly executed.
“The road construction has compounded our situation. Our community is a lowland community. This means it is situated lower than the road and when it rains, the water from the road flows downward and since there are no proper drains, it sought of store up in our community hence the flood.”
Kehinde Oluwadamilare, who called on the state government to intervene and salvage the situation to avoid loss of lives and properties said, “The state government had started working on several community projects round the state. They should also add Koju Foam Community to the list. We seriously need government intervention. We have tried on our own to salvage the situation but this is more than us. We don’t have the financial muscle to tackle this flood. Only the state has that might.
“All we can do is palliative but what can a community do to prevent such? We have warned ourselves against conducting any thing that can impact the environment and encourage flooding and we found out that we did not run foul anywhere.”
The Osun State Commissioner for Works, Oluremi Omowaiye, did not respond to inquiries by journalists yet.
