Residents of Oloro Ile in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State have lamented the hardship they are experiencing daily due to the poor state of roads in the community.
The residents, who complained bitterly about how the deplorable state of the road is affecting their daily activities, added that efforts to seek the intervention of the government in repairing the roads had always proved abortive.
When The Informant247 correspondent visited the community on Saturday, it was observed that roads had become dilapidated, while residents who are mostly farmers, in a bid to remedy the situation, had tasked themselves to fix some of the roads to a manageable state.
The Magaji of Oloro Ile, Issa Ishola, speaking with our correspondent, said the government needed to support the efforts of the residents by fixing the roads, whose current state was making life unbearable for the users.
He added that the bridge which serves as a link between the village, which is over 100 years old, and other communities has also collapsed.
He said the major occupation of the people in the community is farming, adding that there are farmers who cultivate on a large area of land.
Ishola said that farm produces abound in their community, but the major problem they are facing is their bad road.
He said, “We plant a variety of crops in our community. We are large-scale farmers. We intend to be a food basket to the state and beyond but our major problem is the bad road. Our bridge has collapsed for more than five years. We have written letters to the state government through the ministry of works but there is no positive response.
“We are begging the Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to please listen to our cry. There are a lot of resources in our community but we are unable to export and transport them due to the situation of our road.
“Our community is linked to many other neighboring communities like Kajola, Loose, Kaba, Odaajo, Saadu, and even Babaloma. But our bridge has collapsed, we couldn’t get to those communities for easy trading. Most of the time when we harvest, we couldn’t take it to the market to sell. Many of our harvested products rot and are damaged in the store.
“During the rainy season, our people and other villages around us do find it difficult to cross the bridge. If our women want to put to bed, they don’t have access to the hospital, because the water would overfly the bridge and that has become another problem.”
The Youth leader of the community, Mr. Adewale Olohunoshebi, who spoke to our correspondent, said that the community is one of the oldest communities in Kwara State but “unfortunately it is not developing.”
He said, “We don’t have any social amenities that can develop our community, we don’t have good roads, all our roads are bad. We don’t have an electricity supply, we don’t have good and adequate health facilities. No qualitative education in our community.
“Check our school here, it has collapsed. Thank God for our forefathers, they have sacrificed their lives to develop this community but look at the efforts that have been wasted. All the school buildings have collapsed due to improper monitoring from the previous Governments.
“We are begging the governor of the masses, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to come to our aid, we have written different letters of requests to all offices in the state. And these letters were signed and received but nothing has been done.”
For his part, an Indigene, Reverend Joshua Sunday Adebayo, said,” Aside from the situation of our road that has been our major problem, our children don’t have access to standard education. We only have a few classrooms. Other classrooms are dilapidated and need urgent attention and renovation.
“So, we would be happy, if the government can assist us in the provision of good, adequate, and standard classrooms for better, easy, and convenient learning for our children in our community.”