Miscreants, squatters, others return to Obalende underbridge

Six months after the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources cleared the Obalende Underbridge in Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area (LCDA), miscreants, squatters, ram sellers and others have returned to the area.

In February 2024, the ministry and the Special Environmental Task Force cleared the area and expressed plans to ensure its cleanliness and safety. The Commissioner, Tokunbo Wahab, assured that there was a plan for the space and that it would not be left alone, but the commissioner might have reneged on his promise and abandoned the place to miscreants.

Wahab had said: “All shanties, dwellers, traders, settlers and abandoned vehicles currently under the Obalende bridge must vacate the area by Thursday afternoon, February 22, 2024, as enforcement would commence in the early hours of Friday, February 23, 2024.”

He added that the government was set to sustain a clean and safe environment and that in a couple of months, the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) would move in after the deadline to commence work on beautifying and landscaping the Obalende, Apongbon, and Ebute Ero underbridges.

However, The Guardian learned that commercial activities have returned to the area under the bridge, including joints for smokers and probable night-time robbers. Settlers have started building structures, while ram traders have converted a portion of the space into a livestock market. Also, the drainage is filled with refuse of all sorts.

When The Guardian contacted Gaji Tajudeen, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment, he said the ministry is gathering funds to begin work there.

He said: “It’s a work in progress. We are mobilising the funds and will begin work before the end of September 2024. When we move to the site, everyone under the bridge will move away. Lagosians can rest assured that they will leave there because they are not supposed to be there in the first place. But the truth is that when you leave something for a while, it will start creeping back. I am assuring of that.”

When asked about the drainage, he said: “People should do more advocacy and investigation to see the kind of people throwing dirt. We have gone around and arrested people. Charity begins at home, so everything has to start from the people.”

“I don’t know why people still throw their waste in the drainage. They clog the drainage. The people decided to be recalcitrant about the way they do things.

“People won’t speak to them when they throw dirt in drainage but say we are frustrating them when we enforce. We must do it together because we all are the government.”