Adaeze Aniamam
Many residents of Ibafo town in Ogun State are unhappy with the immediate past governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, as his government failed to complete work on a pedestrian bridge he started building there during the last year of his tenure. They are particularly sad that it is the only project the government executed in the town throughout his two-term administration.
While concrete steps and bars have been laid, the coverings planned for the bridge have not been erected.
A few days to Amosun’s exit, work resumed at the site, but the workers disappeared by may 27.
A landlord in Ibafo, Mr Oyejaye James, lamented that as big as the town is, the Amosun government never did anything to develop it.
James said, “All the roads in Ibafo are in a terrible shape. There is no single tarred road here, there is not functional government hospital. In most cases, people have to contribute money to buy transformers, despite the fact that, at a time, the whole town was in darkness for about three years.”
Another landlord in the Kwara Quarters area of the town, Adewale Ogundele, said that what baffled him most was that about two years before, Amosun said that he did not know that Ibafo was as big and populated as it was.
“That was when he visited here during the illegal bunkering crisis when the Ijaw guys almost took over the town. The day Amosun came and had to drive down into the hearts of the communities, he expressed shock that the place is so expansive. But since that time till now, what did he do for us?” Ogundele asked.
Phenomenal.com.ng learnt that, during the last governorship election, a lot of people contemplated voting for Senior Ladies Adebutu – a Peoples Democratic Party aspirant, because he gave them some transformers. But when a court stopped him during the primaries, they eventually voted for Dapo Abiodu.
He added, “We voted for Amosun in 2011 and 2015 but he abandoned us. So we had to look for an alternative. We only hope that Dapo Abiodun will have mercy on us.”
Phenomenal.com.ng also observed that the neglect that Ibafo is suffering is also applicable to other towns around it. These include, Mowe, Mogboro and Arepo, all of which are at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
