Lagos-Ibadan expressway bottleneck: Ogun owners and tenants move to Lagos

Disturbed by prolonged traffic jams on the Lagos-Ibadan highway, some homeowners and residents along the corridor have moved to Lagos State.

Most of these owners and residents have their homes in Mowe, Ofada, Ibafo, Magboro and Arepo, all are border communities along the highway in Ogun State.

Their relocation, some say, was triggered by the number of hours they spend in traffic daily along the route.

In addition, motorists using the axis continued to spend long hours daily in traffic jams, a situation whose difficulties have worsened over the past month

Speaking exclusively to the Nigerian Tribune, one of the owners, residing in Mowe, who is also the managing director of a micro-finance bank in Lagos State, told how he spent an average of four hours from Mowe to Ojota, Lagos since road reconstruction began at Fatgbem-Bus Stop/Kara Bridge, inside Lagos.

As well as driving through traffic, the owner, who wants to be identified simply as Dad Ope, that whenever he leaves his home around 4:30 a.m., he won't arrive at the office in Yaba until 10 a.m.

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As well as being late to the office, he said the traffic jam was already affecting his health, hence the need to seek temporary accommodation in Yaba.

"Since I have accommodation in Yaba, I no longer have to think about traffic jams in Mowe. Moreover, I have peace of mind in my official mission.

"So what I do now is when it's Friday, I go back to Mowe to relax on the weekend and I go back to Lagos on Sunday evening or early Monday," he said. -he declared.

He said he got the one bedroom apartment in Yaba at N400,000 a year.

Another landlord, a staff member of one of the major commercial banks in Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr. Sunday, has said for some time now that he no longer comes home every day like it did before because of the traffic jam on the Lagos. -Ibadan Highway.

Sunday, who resides in Magboro, Ogun State, said he took alternative accommodation around Iyana-oworo for a year so he could easily connect his office.

"When you look at the stress of crossing traffic along the Lagos-Ibadan highway, you will know that it is not worth spending hours in traffic jams and being redundant in the workplace.

"Yes, I have a nice mansion in Magboro, but I have to pay an extra 500,000 naira a year in Lagos to feel comfortable with my office job," he said

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On Sunday, the federal government called on the federal government to convince the road contractor, MM. Julius Berger, to set up a better traffic management team to reduce traffic jams on the highway.

Another owner of Ibafo, who works at a private hospital in the Ogba district of Lagos, said that whenever he left the house on Monday morning, he would not return to Ibafo until the weekend -end.

He said he got temporary accommodation very close to his place of work.

The Nigerian Tribune has also found that many tenants from communities along the Lagos-Ibadan highway have also moved to Lagos, where they have their businesses.

The Federal Government at one point apologized for the difficulties experienced by road users due to construction works on the Berger-Opic axis of the Lagos-Ibadan highway.

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The Acting Federal Comptroller of Works in Lagos State, Forosola Oloyede, said in a statement that the government was aware of the traffic jam due to ongoing reconstruction works on the highway.

According to her, the government is feeling the pain of the people, especially the people of Lagos and Ogun states who are experiencing the inconvenience due to the traffic jam.

Oloyede promised that the government would make necessary improvements to the traffic management system on the road to alleviate the suffering of road users.

She explained that the highway under construction supports a daily volume of heavy vehicles and that the contractor has managed traffic through dedicated diversions while carrying out construction work.

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