One of the roads in the area
Leaders
of White Sand Estate in the Ikotun-Igando Local Council Development
Area of Lagos State have alleged that an official of the Lagos State
Government has demanded a “huge sum of money” from them to assist the
community in getting the attention of relevant authorities to attend to
their plight.
PUNCH Metro had on June 12,
2014 reported that the community was battling with poor access roads
which were making life and economic activities in the community
difficult.
The community had, in the report, also
lamented that there was no evidence of government presence in terms of
good roads, public school, police post, public hospital or health centre
and polling booth.
It was gathered that after the
publication, the official came and promised to work on the community’s
challenges after which he demanded the bribe as a condition to render
any form of assistance.
A resident, who is also the Chairman of
the estate community development association, Pastor Adewale Oyewo,
explained that they were initially happy to receive a notice from the
state secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja, that a government official would be
visiting the community.
He said, “Few days after the
publication, we got a call that somebody from Alausa will be visiting
our community. On June 19, one week after the publication, the official
came. We took him round, showed him some of the projects we had
undertaken on our own and the terrible state of roads in the community.
He promised to channel our demands to the relevant government
authorities, but disappointed me totally when he asked us to give him
money.
“We had initially given him N20,000, but
he told us that the money was for his transport. He added that he would
need something huge and reasonable to convince his bosses to help the
community.
“This is sad because you cannot rescue a
man that is drowning by putting a big stone on his chest. The amount he
was asking for can go a long way to execute one or two projects in this
community.”
The Vice Chairman of the community,
Steve Dike, who is also the chairman of the roads committee, lamented
that their effort at making the roads in the community better was
negatively affecting the residents financially.
He said the community has raised over N3m since the beginning of the year to provide one amenity or the other.
“The roads in this community are making
life unbearable. As it is now, we are completely cut off from the
outside world. You cannot drive in or out. Most of us have to park our
cars very far from our houses.”
Another resident in the community, Mr.
Chris Ojeah, said a director from the ministry of works had also visited
the community, but declined to see state the roads.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Works,
Obafemi Hamzat, in the reply to a text message sent to him by our
correspondent, emphasised that government could not finish everything
with regards to roads in one day.
On the bribe allegation, he said, “If
there is an allegation like that, they have to report to the police.
That is a crime and the police should be involved immediately.”
PUNCH
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