Ogun State correspondent, OLAYINKA OLUKOYA, recently visited Owode-Ketu in Yewa North Local Government Area to assess the extent of damage caused by the overflowing River Yewa which has submerged the only bridge linking the community to about 25 other adjoining communities. She reports:
Owode-Ketu, an agrarian community in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, urgently needs the attention of the Dapo Abiodun-led administration in terms of social, economic and general well-being of residents in the locality.
The community has a population of about 20,000 people who are largely peasant farmers. These people have sent a save-our-soul message to the state government over the condition of the only road leading to the community, and, more importantly, the perennial flooding being experienced in the community which had adversely affected their day-to-day activities.
When Nigerian Tribune visited the community, last Wednesday, it was discovered that the untarred road leading to the town had become impassable as a result of overflow of water from Ogun River, which has submerged the bridge.
This development has, in no small measure, hindered economic activities in the town as normal commercial activities have been put on hold till the water level goes down.
Efforts of leaders and residents of the community to get government’s attention in the past years have not yielded positive results.
It was learnt that the community is about 25 minutes to the neighbouring Republic of Benin and about 45 minutes’ drive to Ayetoro town in the same local government if the road is in good condition.
It was gathered that residents of the community also engage in farming cash crops such as cocoa, yam, cassava, palm oil to mention a few. However, their businesses are being adversely affected due to their inability to transport produce out to neighbouring villages and towns for sale.
Owode-Ketu community, aside from being in need of a good road that will link it to other 25 other adjoining communities, is also in need of improved infrastructure including a proper health facility and the rehabilitation of buildings for both primary and secondary schools in it.
Part of the efforts made recently by the leaders of the community to better their lot was a letter written by the Owode-Ketu Council of Chiefs on October 26, 2023, to Governor Dapo Abiodun and the Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, appealing for the construction of a bridge over River Yewa, to accommodate high volumes of water from the river and to keep the only road linking the community to other communities from being cut off.
In the letter signed by the Baale of Owode-Ketu, Chief Olusola Fabuyi, the community brought the distressing state of its inhabitants before the state government, especially the annual overflow of River Yewa which submerges the two bridges said to have been constructed years ago.
The community leader claimed that the government of the late Chief Olabisi Onabanjo had planned to reconstruct the road to link Ayetoro and Tata towns, but the plan could not be executed as the Second Republic was thwarted by military coup.
Fabuyi narrated how a heavily pregnant woman from Abotokio was delivered of a child, having swam through the water that had taken over the road to the community in a bid to access medical attention at a primary healthcare centre (PHC).
He said that it was by sheer providence that the baby was delivered on the bridge by a health worker, before the mother and child could be taken to the PHC for more attention.
The letter, addressed to the governor and obtained by Nigerian Tribune reads:
“I write on behalf of myself and the entire Owode Ketu Community to humbly bring to Your Excellency’s kind attention the plight of the over 25 communities along the Tata (Abotokio)-Owode Ketu-Sunwa-Ayetoro Road who have been cut off from the rest of the world by the overflow of Yewa River, which often submerges the two bridges constructed over it in 1984/85 by the Yewa North Local Government, as the bridges have proved to be grossly inadequate.
“For upwards of four months now, the socioeconomic activities of the communities that the road serves have been paralysed, in addition to the cases of students who are unable to return to schools for the 2023/2024 academic calendar, children and women who are denied passage for healthcare services and aged that lack access to basic necessities, including foods. As a case in point, please find attached pictures of a middle-aged pregnant woman being delivered of a baby right on the bridge, as she fell into labour while struggling to cross the river’s overflow on her way to a maternity centre in August this year. We also attached pictures of the overflows with commuters also struggling to cross over to the neighbouring Ijoun Market. This is our bitter and agonising experience every year.
“It may interest Your Excellency to note that the road was approved for construction in 1981 by the Administration of the late Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, the first civilian governor of the state, to link Ayetoro, the headquarters of the then Isokan Local Government and Tata, headquarters of the then Yewa Local Government Area, the two local government areas into which Yewa North Local Government Area was divided by the administration. Regrettably, before the Olabisi Onabanjo Administration could do anything about the road, the Second Republic was terminated by the military in 1983. Since then, representations made to successive administrations on the road have been to no avail.
“In view of the overriding importance of the road to the socioeconomic lives of communities along its corridor, and in order to make the road an all-season road, we passionately appeal for Your Excellency’s gracious intervention for an immediate construction of a bridge strong, high and long enough to restrain the high volume of the river’s flood waters from submerging it.
“To this end, Your Excellency may wish to direct engineers from the state to visit the river for an on-the-spot assessment.
“We like to acknowledge and commend Your Excellency’s transformational leadership, the footprints of which abound across different spheres of life across the state.
“As you settle down into office for the second term mandate which was freely given you by the great people of Ogun State, we pray that the gracious Lord will imbue you with greater wisdom and divine guidance to steer the ship of the State to the enviable height envisioned by its founding fathers.
While promising you our unalloyed support always, please accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune in an interview, Fabuyi, recalled efforts made by the community over 50 years ago in constructing a bridge over the river, and the intervention of the military administration of the late General Oladipo Diya, when he visited the town sometime in the 80s.
He explained that Diya immediately gave an order to the authority of the Council area then to construct a new bridge for the use of the community and discarded the wooden bridge constructed by the people through self-effort.
He said, “We have come a long way as far as the construction of this bridge as a community is concerned. I can vividly recall that in 1973, our people took it upon themselves to build a bridge, but could not proceed further because the task was too enormous for us to bear.
“It was a group within the community that eventually constructed a wooden bridge for our use and it was this bridge that the then military administrator, the late General Oladipo Diya saw when he visited Owode-Ketu, and gave an express order that the authority at the local government level should construct a bridge. Of course, the bridge was constructed with many deficiencies. It was not high enough to accommodate the water level from River Yewa, especially in the raining season.
“We have tried as a people to ensure that something is done about our plight, but our effort has not yielded positive results. All we are calling for is the construction of a new standard bridge that would make our nightmare about the road a thing of the past.
“We have best assurances that the present administration in the state under Dapo Abiodun, as Ogun State governor, will listen to our cries and remember Owode-Ketu.”
The Jagunna Owode-Ketu, Chief Gabriel Abiodun, equally appealed to the state government, to recruit more teachers for their schools: Yewa North Local Government Primary School 1 and 2.
He explained that there were not enough teachers in the schools for effective teaching and learning.
A resident who identified himself as Obaloyin Taiwo also urged the state government to employ more teachers at Owode-Ketu Commercial High School.
He disclosed that teachers posted the State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), most of the time, seek redeployment to other schools in the council area because the community lacks basic amenities.
Chief Olalekan Tijani described his community as a chamber of commerce, based on the volume of agricultural produce coming out from it on a daily basis.
Tijani added that residents of the community could not quantify their losses in financial terms over the almost eight months period that the bridge had been submerged with water from River Yewa, making accessibility to other neighbouring villages and towns practically impossible.
“We have nowhere to go. This is our town, our home. We can only appeal to Governor Dapo Abiodun to send his aides to this community to assess the extent of inconvenience this development has caused us,” Tijani added.
A prompt response by the state government would, no doubt, give the people of this locality a sense of belonging as those who should benefit from the government they voted into power.
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