‘Why we joined Catholic Church to rehabilitate Oke Padre-Olorisaoko road’

The president of Ogunpa Progressive Youths Association (OPYA), Mr Obiyinka Olusola, on Friday, said the need to ensure free flow of traffic and tackle seeming chaos informed the collaboration between St Mary Catholic Church, Oke Padre and the youth organisation to rehabilitate Olorisaoko-Oke Padre road.

He explained that the youth, traders and management of St Mary resolved to fix deplorable portions on the road, having secured the approval of Ibadan North-West Local Government Area of Oyo State.

Speaking on the sideline of the rehabilitation works at Oke-Parde-Ogunpa junction, Obiyinka, who hinted that the rehabilitation works gulped over N2 million, lauded the timely intervention of St Mary Catholic Church over the project.

“We have been on this project since two years ago and we approached Ibadan North West Local Government Area authorities and they gave us the approval to rehabilitate the road. With the combined effort of the youth in our association, the Catholic Church here and the money we collected from the traders, we decided to go ahead and that is what is happening here.

“The volume of vehicles plying these roads and population around here in the market are having negative effects on its usage and it doesn’t give room for orderliness. That is why we partnered with the St Mary Catholic Church to repair the roads because government alone cannot shoulder all the responsibilities in the community, “ Obiyinka said.

On the maintenance of the road, Obiyinka hinted that “what we are doing is the concrete fixing of the bad portions and we have bought adequate bags of cement to ensure the delivery of quality works by the people handling the projects. We have also talked to the chairman of Park Management System (PMS), Oke Padre Unit, to ensure that their members do not mess up the rehabilitation works we are doing. They have been directed to ensure orderliness.”

Also speaking, the cathedral administrator of St Mary Catholic Church, Very Reverend Felix Idowu Ethapemi, said: “We are working together and this road is always lustered because of the potholes and other bad portions. This causes a lot of traffic gridlock and it affects the traders here.

“This collaboration will help traders, commercial vehicles owners and even people coming to the church because they will have easy access to come here and pray. If this place is not noisy and clumsy, people will be able to pray well,” Ethapemi remarked.