Residents of Koju Foam Community, located along the Osogbo-Ikirun highway have expressed concern over the flooding that has overtaken their locality.
Alade Ogundare, Chairman, Landlord Association and other community leaders who spoke with DAILY POST revealed that the Osun State Government is aware of their predicament.
According to them, the Commissioner for Works, Oluremi Omowaiye and his team visited the community in February, 2021, where they made a promise that the state government would immediately come to the aid of the community as soon as possible, especially as the rainy season was about to begin.
Three months after the visit by the Commissioner, they explained that nothing had been done.
The Community leaders disclosed to DAILY POST that efforts by the residents to reduce the impact of flooding had proved abortive as the retaining walls constructed to reduce the impact had fallen off.
To further compound the issue they stressed, “residents of this community are in disarray as NiMET has predicted above normal rainfall for 2021.
“We, therefore, call on the Osun State Government to salvage the situation to avoid loss of lives and properties.”
Meanwhile, Julius Ayowole, Programme Officer, Urban Alert, a social welfare mobilisation group, which notified DAILY POST of the disaster, corroborated the complaints of the residents of Koju Foam.
According to him, the residents now lived in fear anytime it rained and many houses were inaccessible due to the large volume of water that had flooded the roads and drainage systems located in the area.
“Upon receiving numerous complaints from residents of Koju Foam Community, Off Osogbo-Ikirun Road, Osogbo, our team visited the community to ascertain the impact of flood which we discovered was caused by the construction of the yet to be completed Osogbo-Ikirun Road.
“When the Urban Alert team visited the community, the chairman of Koju Foam Community disclosed that officials of the Osun State Government had visited the community several times.
“It could be seen that the runoff water from both sides of Biket Junction and Powerline Area was directed at Koju Foam Community.
“However, rather than maintain a wide drainage channel from the main road down to the stream at Koju Foam Community, the contractor not only reduced the width but also reduced the quality.”
As of the time of filing this report, the state Commissioner for Works neither responded to DAILY POST’s SMS and WhatsApp messages, nor picked phone calls to his number.
(DAILY POST)
