Emmanuel Ukudolo
The Ogun River has once more overflowed its banks, producing a tributary known in local parlance as River Denro that has completely cut off residents of Denro and surrounding communities from Ojodu, partly in Ogun and Lagos State.
For days, workers and students have been subjected to hell due to sudden appearance of the water, almost shoulder high in some areas, forcing many to take a long, terrible and very bad terrain through Ishasi, Akute to Alagbole to link Ogba in Lagos or Ojodu, whose terrain has been worsened by the emergence of a bridge that bears no hope of completion by Governor Ibikunle Amosun and perhaps his successor.
However some are now able to commute to and from due to ingenuity of local volunteers who now charge N50 per person to cross through the river on the wooden plank before boarding vehicles waiting on both side of the makeshift structure.
“We have been abandoned by Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. Is this not an emergency? Where is the governor? I tell you in a civilized society, the governor would have been here to provide palliative pending when a permanent solution will be provided, but he is not concerned. Before we were complaining of this terrible road, now see what has happened”, Ahmed Ibrahim, of the local volunteers told our correspondent.
A commuter who identified herself as Bimpe thanked the local volunteers for the provision of the makeshift structures. “It is better now, at least we are able to cross unlike when the volunteers were carrying us on their back. Half bread is better than nothing”, she adding that there is however the possibility of falling into the polluted water in the process of crossing the makeshift bridge.
