Lagos-Ibadan expressroad gridlock: Ogun landlords, tenants relocate to Lagos

Perturbed by the prolonged traffic jam on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, some landlords and residents along the corridor have relocated to Lagos State.

Most of these landlords and residents have their houses in Mowe, Ofada, Ibafo, Magboro and Arepo, all are border communities along the expressway in Ogun State.

Their relocation, according to some of them, was triggered by the number of hours being spent in traffic jam on daily basis along the route.

Also, motorists plying the axis have continued to spend long hours in gridlock daily, a situation with the hardship getting worse in the last one month

Speaking exclusively with the Nigerian Tribune, one of the landlords, residing in Mowe, who is also a managing director of a micro-finance bank in Lagos State, narrated how he spent an average of four hours from Mowe to Ojota, Lagos since the commencement of the road’s reconstruction at Fatgbem- Bus- Stop/Kara Bridge, inward Lagos.

Apart from driving through the traffic, the landlord, who wants to be identified simply as Daddy Ope, that whenever he leaves his home around 4.30a.m, he won’t get to office in Yaba until 10a.m.

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Apart from getting to the office late, he said the gridlock was already affecting his health, hence the need to look for temporary accommodation in Yaba.

“Since I got the accommodation in Yaba, I don’t have to think about traffic jam in Mowe. Also, I have peace of mind doing my official assignment.

“So what I do now is that when it’s Friday, I go back to Mowe to relax for the weekend and return to Lagos either Sunday’s evening or early hours on Monday,’ he said.

He said he got the one-bedroom apartment in Yaba at N400,000 per annum.

Another landlord, staff of one of the top commercial banks in Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr Sunday, said for some time now, he has not be coming home on daily basis as he used to do due to the logjam on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Sunday, who resides in Magboro, Ogun State, said he took another accommodation around Iyana-oworo for one year, so that he could connect his office easily.

“When you look at the stress of going through the traffic along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, you will know that it doesn’t worth to spend hours in traffic jam and be redundant at work place.

“Yes I have a beautiful mansion in Magboro, but I have to pay additional N500,000 per annum in Lagos to make myself comfortable with my office work,” he said

Sunday called on the Federal Government to prevail on the road’s contractor, Messrs Julius Berger, to put in place better traffic management team to ease gridlock on the expressway.

Another landlord in Ibafo, who works in a private hospitals in Ogba area of Lagos, said whenever he leaves the home on Monday’s morning, he won’t return to Ibafo until the weekend.

He said he has secured a temporary accommodation very close to his place of work.

Nigerian Tribune also gathered that many tenants in communities along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway have also relocated to Lagos, where they have their businesses.

The Federal Government, at a time, apologised for the hardship being faced by road users due to construction works on the Berger-Opic axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The Acting Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, ForosolaOloyede, said in a statement that the government was aware of the traffic gridlock due to the ongoing reconstruction works on the expressway.

According to her, the government feels the pains of the people, especially residents of Lagos and Ogun States who are at the receiving end of the inconveniences due to the gridlock.

Oloyede promised that the government would make necessary improvements in the traffic management system on the road in order to alleviate the suffering of the road users.

She explained that the highway under construction bears daily heavy vehicular volume and the contractor managed the traffic through dedicated diversions while carrying on construction works.

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