May 16, 2018

The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has commenced road repairs and cleaning of drainage channels in Lagos, to reduce the impact of flooding.

The Agency’s South West II Zonal Coordinator, Mr Rufus Onimisi,
in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos, said that it was currently fixing some bad roads in Olodi-Apapa, Iganmu and Ijora in Lagos, as well as the Gbagi area in Badagry.

He said that Adeniji Adele and other roads in Lagos would soon receive attention as the agency was expecting funds from the Federal Government.

Onimisi said that FERMA had been using direct labour to intervene on very critical portions of the roads, pending the passage of the 2018 budget.

He said that the state, being a coastal city, was lying low and susceptible to flooding, but that the agency was working to complement the efforts of the state government to reduce the impact.

“Our emphasis all this while is on our carriageways; we also have to clean the drains because flood water will destroy our roads.

“We are repairing bad portions to make the roads passable, now that we have the rains where we have the challenge of flooding, we try to address them.

“And even in Lagos West, we have done some road repair works in Gbagi, this Gbagi is along Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

“We just finished some repairs along Gbagi towards the Badagry end, even on the Apapa side, we just did one. We are now on the Ikorodu Itoikin road and other roads,’’ he said.

Onimisi added: “There is an ongoing drainage and shoulder work along Wasimi on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

“We also did about 12 weeks of massive intervention through direct labour between December 2017 and February, this year.’’

Onimisi, however, said that due to paucity of funds, the agency would continue to manage its meagre resources in executing its repairs through direct labour, pending the passage of the 2018 budget.

He said that the agency was planning to return to the Lagos-Badagry Expressway and the Ikorodu-Itoikin Road, where it carried out major repairs, to continue massive rehabilitation works.

“Hopefully in the next two weeks, we are still going to intervene on some other bad portions of the road that we were not able to touch then,’’ he said.

Onimisi said that the agency was expecting some funds in a few weeks, to enable it to expand the scope of work on cleaning drainage channels and fixing some bad roads.

He, however, listed paucity of funds, insecurity and menace of street urchins as some challenges affecting the agency.

According to him, street urchins or social miscreants sometimes demanded money wherever the agency was working.

He said that they usually cut and damaged some roads for selfish gains.

“At times, we intend to work even in the night because of heavy traffic during the day time and that one too has its challenges in terms of security,’’ he said.

“We intend to begin to open up some of the weep holes, especially on bridges, to avoid flooding.’’

He appealed to residents of the Lagos metropolis to stop dumping their refuse in the drains.