Flood-Nigeria - Any first time visitor to Oke Alo Estate, off Gbagada, in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos, will never fail to marvel at the magnificent buildings and exotic cars driving in and out of the estate. But like the title of a popular soap opera, the rich also cry as residents of the estate are presently lamenting over the imminent danger of their houses sinking, except urgent measures are taken to check the development.

This is as a result of the absence of drainage for the canal which runs through the area. Consequently, when it rains, water comes out of the ground, destroying properties of some of the residents, particularly those on ground floors. During the rainy season, the whole street is submerged in water, thereby making the roads impassable for cars and humans. When Vanguard Metro visited the area recently, it was found that some uncompleted buildings have started sinking already.

It was against this backdrop that residents of the estate have called on the state government to come to their aid before the situation gets out of hand.

The residents association led by the Chairman of the community's central zone, Mr. Remi Olowookere and the Chairman, security committee, Mr. Segun Tunwase lamented the absence of basic amenities, adding that it was only through self-help by residents that the area had been developed to its present level.

A walk round the estate showed that most of the buildings have pumping machines and stand-by power generating sets with which residents claimed they use to pump out water from their compounds any time it rains.

A visit to Alausa, according to Tunwase, revealed that the contract for the evacuation of the canal had been awarded. But astonishingly, nothing, according to him, had been done.

"When we went to Alausa they told us that the contract had been awarded. But till date, we have not felt government presence, except for the presence of officials of INEC who came for voters registration. Drainage of this canal is an issue bothering us at present. That is why we are calling on Governor Babatunde Fashola to come to our aid. The canal comes all the way from TREM side and flows to Atunrase end. But that of TREM had been developed as well as Atunrase's end, leaving its concentration at our end. And whenever it rains, hell is let loose, as we are always worried whether our pumping machines would be able to pump out the flood water in our compounds because electricity supply by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria is usually non-existent. We have dug our own bore holes, bought our own power generating sets as well as the gas and fuel because the government is yet to do a proper chanellization of the drainage. But it has not brought about a lasting solution. We are therefore calling on the state government to come to our aid. Or does it mean people's means of livelihood should be disrupted whenever it rains?" asked Tunwase.

The residents who frowned at what they described as neglect on the part of government, claimed to be up and doing in the payment of their taxes, wondering why the state government would not play its own part.

Olowookere on his part pointed out that if the state government could not match the provision of some basic infrastructures with the taxes being collected from both corporate organisations and individuals alike in the state, "then there is no justification whatsoever for the tax being collected by the state government and the tenement rates being collected by the local government authorities from the citizenry.

Another worrisome development, according to the residents was the uncompleted Millennium Estate close to theirs. The Millennium Estate said to be owned by the state government has been under construction for several years. But the residents claimed it was constituting a grave security challenge to them as it served as a haven for criminals. Currently, they claimed not to be sleeping with their two eyes closed owing to incessant robbery attacks.

The criminals, according to Olowokere, " are now in the habits of passing through an unmanned entrance directly behind Oke-Alo Estate which is usually opened, while the contractors handling the Millennium Estate project have also refused to take responsibility for the security of the estate, thereby rendering the entire environment unsafe and porous to robbery attacks from men of the underworld".

Olowookere also noted that attempt by the residents to call the attention of the contractors handling the Millennium Estate project to some of these security lapses, had only be met with an outright rebuff and "a warning that we should keep off so that we don't incur the wrath of the law".

Evelyn Usman

Vanguard