Ilo-Awela toll road is popular for connecting many roads within Ota, Ogun state. It distributes traffic from Idiroko, Agbara Industrial Estate, Badagry and the international Benin Republic Seme border onto Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. More than Sango, the Ilo-Awela road is also plied every weekend by multitudes from Faith Tabernacle Church, otherwise known as Winners Chapel, as well as many other commuters. The fastest cut to linking Lagos from any of the aforementioned places is the Ilo-Awela road.
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Ilo-Awela toll road is popular for connecting many roads within Ota, Ogun state. It distributes traffic from Idiroko, Agbara Industrial Estate, Badagry and the international Benin Republic Seme border onto Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. More than Sango, the Ilo-Awela road is also plied every weekend by multitudes from Faith Tabernacle Church, otherwise known as Winners Chapel, as well as many other commuters. The fastest cut to linking Lagos from any of the aforementioned places is the Ilo-Awela road.
The choice of speed and the relevance of the organizations/institutions connected by this road causes it to bear huge traffic. If you ever had any activity at the Ota Local Government Secretariat, you have probably experienced this road, as it is situated immediately beside the Local Government. It suffices therefore to tag the road as an international carriage way and as such, should be one of the best tarred roads in Ogun State. Unfortunately, however, this road is the most neglected in history.
Showing off double statuses, the road is a ‘red sea’ during wet season, due to the absence of a drainage system. And in the dry season, a cloud of rioting dust envelops road users. The worst time to experience this road is the period when the Winners Chapel is having its festive ‘Shiloh’ program. Although the church has played a plausible role in the history of patching the road with sand fills, the road possesses deep holes that are only inches away from one another. Cars are carefully driven on this road as bestirred dust ride stately with behind their motion. Road users inhale an estimated ‘De Rica’ quantity of sand per journey. No known parametric technique can ascertain the mathematics of people weakening everyday by ingesting earth unconsciously while using this road. The history associated with the maintenance of this road is one fraught by deceptive administration of the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, whose inglorious pseudo name short-reads as ‘OGD’.
At first, OGD’s administration deceived people by demolishing houses along the road. Inhabitants took him seriously on the project that never was intended, never was initiated. The demolition of houses ended the project and the Winners Chapel took it up, filling pot holes with sands occasionally. OGD, throughout his eight years was reputed for putting sand on roads in Ogun State through his OGROMA (Ogun State Road Maintenance Agency) to create the impression that he would shortly commence a project.
The sands usually end up being carted away by erosions.
OGD’s political godfather, Obasanjo, is known to prefer sneaking through Joju express link way, a narrower but partially maintained access road channeling few vehicles from the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway to Idiroko road. Throughout his administration, Obasanjo flew on airplanes to his Ota farm, after he was once trapped for only two hours in a terrible traffic jam, which was already a daily experience for inhabitants of Sango, Idiroko, Iyana-Iyesi, Oju-Ore and the entire Ota region. Inhabitants of Ota Local Government area say Obasanjo is the ‘most useless President ever in Nigeria’ and that they will honor him with such chieftaincy title, if he would welcome a ceremony to its effect. Till the end of his eight years of seemingly democratic rule, no good road led to Ota, the host community of his Ota farm.
Recall also, that the first fly-over attempted at Sango Ota by the combined administration of Obasanjo and his late successor, Yar’Adua, was half-constructed. On the same fly-over, two ‘illustrious’ sons of the land, former Speaker Dimeji Bankole and OGD, both of whom are currently having terrible corruption cases with the EFCC, fought each other to ‘commission’ the Sango ‘bridge’.
The duo were shameless, fighting to take credit for the construction of a fly-over that, even today, is still not showing any signal of completion in the near future. Grapevine has it that Bishop Oyedepo’s church was invited to join efforts with the Government in reconstructing the Ilo-Awela road. The church Bishop, understanding that it will aid his business, subscribed to the idea, believing that it was a sincere agreement. The church is said to have paid its part of the agreement to the government, and OGD’s Government brought some equipment to demolish houses, leaving people with the impression that work had started. But OGD’s government never came back to the road and places cleared supposedly for the rehabilitation are already having new structures and business shops on them. On the account of Government’s insincerity, Winners Chapel has refused other invitations to partner with any government on road reconstruction. The church has reportedly asked to be allowed to do the proper tarring of the road without Government’s partnership, but the government of Ota local government and Ogun State under OGD refused him on the ground that the man may name the road after his church. The lack of attention of OGD’s government to this road and refusal to allow any individual touch it has extended the painful daily experiences of users of the road.
As a result, the Ilo-Awela road has always attracted curses on OGD but accolades on the Winners Chapel. Everyday, users protect their nostrils from inhaling dust and commend Winners Chapel for the sand fills, while cursing OGD for putting them in a deep mess. Inhabitants and commuters describe Gbenga Daniel’s entire life in antonomasia with the the Ilo-Awela road. “See Gbenga’s life spoiling like this”, some of them will say.
OGD is reputed for telling lies, engaging in corrupt practices and using thugs to achieve his selfish aims. As people who backed his corrupt lifestyle during his administration now turn away from him and castigate him, it signals they were either under Stockholm syndrome spell or only wanted their share of his stolen wealth.
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