Shop owners and residents in Idumagbo Afeni off Ojo Giwa Junction, Lagos Island Local Government Area have called on the State and Federal Government to come to their aid by draining water that has been stagnant for more than 10 years causing a foul stench and obstructing business and traffic.
One of the residents who spoke with SaharaReporters on the condition of anonymity said: "this problem started when Fashola went to the other side and started sandfiling the river there, they blocked the river and the passage where the river flows but it got worse three or four years ago now when the Water Corporation's piped water burst somewhere on the road and we have complained to them; we event went to the local government to lodge our complain".
On efforts to reach government at the local level, he said "the local government chairman told us that it is beyond him and it is the state government that will do it and we have been waiting since then, this is a state that prides itself as center of excellence; this is a major road leading the third mainland bridge, we don't know what else to do. We pay our tenement rate, our trade permit, waste permit but we are hoping that God will touch them and they will do the needful ".
A shop owner, Mr. Ladi, whose shop face the blackened water said, "this has been a burden for quite a while now. When it starts, it will come with force and then receed. This area used to have a mosque where people could pray in and on Sundays kids would play freely; parts of the street was also used for social events. A leaking pipe of the Water Corporation adds to the Water levels, the stench is very foul our customers keep saying, don't you vote? Don't you have a government? We are ashamed".
As SaharaReporters spoke to people in the communities, road users plying the route on sighting SaharaReporters called out desperately from their shops and cars "help us o", "10 years like this", "help us show the world, is this good?".
As residents gathered to voice their grievances, one of them, Mr. Oyewole spoke on the community's effort to have the situation resolved: "We have been to the local government chairman, there was a time they came and evacuated all the garbage on the gutters but this is the result. We told the chairman to cut the road into two so that the gutter towards the main road will be flowing but he said he cannot do it because it is not in his power unless he goes and complain to the state government".
Another resident, Shodehinde quetioned governments desertion of the area saying "We have been facing this for quite a long time, we have been asking government to come and intervene, if you look at this vicinity when it's rainy season you won't be able to stand here, look at where refuse it, look at that drainage it has been there for how many years?
"We have been calling on the attention of the people we voted for that they should come and do something here because it is not good."
When SaharaReporters tried to reach the Local Government Chairman, Lagos Island (Isle Eko) Olusi Tijani Adetoyoshe via his mobile line, he was unreachable.