A lot of people are dying on the road, tourism has almost collapsed, this is a place that over 460 billion naira has been spent to rehabilitate the roads.
Women under the aegis of ‘Women Arise For Change Initiative’ and members of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), a civil society organisation, on Monday, thronged the major roads in Badagry to protest the total neglect of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway by both the Federal and State Governments.
The two groups were joined by the residents of Badagry and motorists who regularly ‘ply’ the roads.
The protest match started from Badagry roundabout at about 8am on Monday.The protesters filed out peacefully on the highway to Igbo-elerin.
They held aloft placards with various inscriptions, such as “FIX BADAGRY EXPRESS ROAD”, “Enough Is Enough”, “We Are Also Tax Payers”, “No Retreat, No Surrender”, “We Give You 100 Days”
Addressing the protesters, Dr Joe Odunmakin said the protest was to draw attention of President Muhammadu Buhari and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos State Governor-elect, to the plights of residents, motorists and other road users, over the neglect and abandonment of the road.
Odumakin said the road had become a death trap and a huge hindrance to business and economic growth in Badagry and its environs.
She said, “As we speak, we will find out that Badagry has been a gateway of pain and anguish. A lot of people are dying on the road, tourism has almost collapsed, this is a place that over 460 billion naira has been spent to rehabilitate the roads.
“There’s a nexus between infrastructures in terms of roads and the economy, and the economy here is almost coming to stagnation, and this is why is support this just cause.”
She urged the government to rise up to the occasion by fixing the road because of the location of the road and the crucial purpose of linking Nigeria to other West African countries served by the road; claiming that the road is not just an eyesore but a nation shame.
“Government must rise up and within 100 days, and ensure that something urgently is done. Again, state of emergency has to be beamed on this road, and finally I think that we must understand that if roads are not fixed, then almost everything will collapse.
“This is a West African road, and this has become a national shame,” She concluded.
Some residents and students along this axis while speaking with Sahara Reporters said the road had claimed many lives , caused miscarriages, made lots of people to lose their jobs and made a lot of student to fail their exams, and lots more.
The distraught residents said the time-taken to cover the distance from Mile 2- Badagry was equivalent to the time-taken to cover the distance from Enugu to Lagos.
