By Bose Adelaja
ON Sunday October 23, residents of Ajegunle along Ikorodu Road woke up to be confronted by a serious flood arising from the overflow of the Odo-Ogun river. The surge especially affected the major tarred road leading to Ikorodu and its environs.

Not surprisingly, the situation later caused a serious gridlock on both sides of the road, forcing many residents to arrive their destinations late. This was in spite of spirited efforts by some  officials of the Lagos State Traffic and Management Authority, LASTMA, which yielded little or no result.

Just as it was the previous day when post-election protests forced commercial bus drivers to withdraw their vehicles from the road, most commuters had no choice but to embark on an endurance trek, especially when operators of the few available  buses hiked their fares between 100 and 150 per cent.

*Traffic jam on Ikorodu Road...caused by the flood

By Monday, Vanguard Metro, VM, witnessed an almost free flow of traffic between the hours of 9am and 10am. Compared with the alarm raised over the airwaves on Sunday, the  gridlock this day stretched to a distance of between 100 and 400 metres which started before a filling station at Ajegunle Bus-stop area of the road and ended after the connecting road nearest to Irawo Bus-stop.

Wooden bridges

However, residents of Itowolo, Ajegunle, Irawo, Owode-Elede and its environs were the worse hit by the  flood ‘invasion’ and had to resort to the use of canoes to access their streets. Many also hastily constructed  wooden bridges to link their houses to the water logged roads.

This, however, was in contravention of the earlier and consistent warning issued by the State Government directing them to quit the vicinity based on experts forecast of the impending danger.

Most of the residents who spoke with VM, however, said they could not obey the order because they had  no places for them to relocate to.

VM saw many abandoned vehicles submerged in the flood. But surprisingly business was in high gear as traders were seen busy in their makeshift stalls even in the flooded areas. Hawkers were also busy wading through the flooded road to attend to their customers.

Also not left out were some furniture dealers who displayed their wares seemingly oblivious of the surrounding water. Some of them told VM that they are not bothered because they  were used to the situation which was first experienced about 16 years ago and has been re-occuiring since then, becoming worse  last year.

At Irawo, some women with babies strapped to their backs were seen  struggling to find their way inside the flooded areas on their way home even with the flood water reaching their waists.

Speaking with this reporter, some commuters wondered why law makers from the state have not been using part of their constituency allowances to alleviate the sufferings of the masses, just as they frowned at government’s expressed intention to remove subsidy on petroleum products.

It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan visited the area the last time serious flooding occurred there and promised government’s intervention to  bring succour to the inhabitants. But that is yet to happen. It was only recently that the Lagos State government relocated some victims to Agbowa camp.

“I have lived in Ajegunle for about 20 years but the last flood here forced me to relocate to Odogunyan area. Unfortunately government has not done anything to save the situation,” said a public servant, Mrs Olaitan Falodun.

Some commuters said they had no choice but to brave the flooded road to get to their destinations.  “What else can we do, we have no alternative,” chorused Mr. Nathaniel Abiodun, Mrs Juliana Gabriel and Messirs Anthony Ogochukwu.