THE continued deplorable condition of the access road at the Ibafon axis of the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway has continued to arouse concerns from stakeholders operating around the numerous tank farms situated in the private jetties there, even as some of them have blamed the situation on the illegal construction of some structures in the area. The two- day rain fall which was experienced in Lagos last week was a reminder of the constant suffering that operators along the jetty including commercial and private vehicles are subjected to whenever there is rainfall.
We recall that tank farm operators at the jetty had earlier sought government’s intervention, but to no avail.
Shipping Position Weekly however gathered last week from sources that the cause of the continued flooding between Sunrise bus stop and Coconut bus stop is because the drainages that were constructed to pass water from the expressway to the Lagoon has been blocked b y some tank farms.
A top manager at one of the many petroleum products depot scattered along the axis who pleaded anonymity confirmed to our correspondent that the construction of the roads was actually carried out with good intention.
“If you check the front of the Trinity police station at Sunrise bus stop, you will discover that a drainage was actually constructed underground that leads to the Lagoon, but the place the channel should pass has been taken over by a tank farm and this is why the water has been stagnant” he alleged.
The source speaking further alleged that “the space where we have this Sifax bonded terminal, before it was constructed use to be a Canal, but Bode George who was NPA board chairman at that time decided to convert it into a bonded terminal which became Sifax now, the same thing is obtainable if you trace the line up to Coconut bus stop you will see that houses have been built on the space provided for the water to pass through, government is the cause of this problem, because they should not have permitted any depot to stand on such area” he alleged further.
A petroleum marketer, Mr Olanife Adeoye who spoke to our correspondent advised that necessary steps must be taken saying that: “if in the process of building the Badagry express way they were able to remove some filling stations, buildings and companies in order to pave way for the roads, then they can as well do such here and compensate anybody that is aggrieved, it is a federal road and I believe the money is there” he stated.
However, in his chat with Shipping Position Weekly, chairman of the technical committee of stakeholders operating in Ibru yard, Mr. Geoffrey Okorie explained that a combination of all depot owners in the Ibru yard have played their part in ensuring that the access roads are rehabilitated.
According to him “the road is a federal road which links to other local governments and even to the ports, these are money making avenues for the federal government, the stakeholders have spent money to tare that road before, we have cleared the drainages and we did not call federal government to come into that, we evacuated the peddlers and hoodlums from the area on our own, it was when we appealed to government that they brought the Navy to come and operate here, the situation is beyond the stakeholders and government should not wait until we call on them, everyday money is being generated from the Apapa port and the Tin can port, they should use the funds to do something”.
Okorie also advised that “there should be a task force to ensure that people no longer throw things into the channel; for example, the vulcanizers and oil peddlers should be flushed out of the area because by the time a channel is cleared and this people are still there carrying out their business, they will use tires, drums and so on to still block it”.
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