By Seun Obanla & Biodun Adejare
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The Association of Landlords, Okuta Elerinla government Residential Estate, Akure, has called on the state government to intervene and rescue the estate from the menace caused by drivers of articulated lorries who have turned the estate to their parking lots , causing traffic jam, blocking residents from going out , polluting the estate which is hazardous to health and spoiling the newly constructed asphalt road along Kola Adeyemi Street in the Estate.
Speaking at the inauguration of the executive of the association at the weekend ,the new Chairman, Pastor Tope Babatope lamented the hardship the residents are facing through the indiscriminate parking and blocking of roads by the drivers with their trucks, adding that out of the four-kilometer-road the last administration promised to rehabilitate and tar in the estate only two streets were attended to and out of these, one is already being damaged by heavy duty vehicles.
The chairman noted that the residents have made several appeals to the owner of the premises where the company operates, which is the owner of the vehicles to relocate from the main road as there are already serious impacts made on the road in order to forestall further damage on the roads but surprisingly they turned deaf ears to the appeal.
According to Babatope, already the road has started failing. Before you know it, it may cost the government another huge amount to fix.
His words: “I am aware of the scale and gravity of the problems we are currently facing in terms of finance and the nuisance caused by the articulated vehicles which have taken over the estate with their lackadaisical attitude to human living.
We should not wait until these vehicles begin to cause accidents on our roads in the estate.
We must brace up and do something without further delay. I learnt that about two weeks ago they blocked residents from going out of the estate .”
The Chairman while rolling out his plan to the members of the association stated that he would involve people at increasing their sense of belonging to their community, informing residents of their rights under the law and in particular the landlord and tenant related legislation.
“Exerting pressure if needed on the landlord or his agent to maintain an appropriate standard of decoration and maintenance of the interior and exterior of buildings and at reasonable costs”.
Babatope affirmed “Since our coming together is to represent the views of all residents in the community to help make our neighbourhood a better place to live, we would work closely with the state government, local government , police and other statutory bodies for mutual benefits”.
Earlier in his handing over speech, the past chairman of the association, Dr Ajileye Fadahunsi , the Medical Director of Hopeland hospital, lauded the cooperation of the members of the association, saying it was in view of their support that during his tenure, the association could build a perimeter fence for the divisional police station, which cost over N600,000.
Speaking on the state of roads in the estate, he called on the government of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, the state governor to help look into the estate saying, if roads like Ijelu, Dayo Ajibulu, Ade Tade streets, Hallelujah Close and others could be attended to in order to meet up with the standard of an estate it would be highly appreciated as he also called on the state government to complete the uncompleted drainage embarked upon in the estate in view of the danger it may pose to residents.
In another development, during a courtesy visit by the executives of the association to the Divisional Police Officer in the estate, Emmanuel Ehichioya, he stated that the police had intervened several times to ensure that there was no break down of law and order but seemed the other party was not ready to cooperate with the estate.
According to the DPO, we always receive reports in our station here, after driving the truck drivers away by next day or three days later everywhere would be filled with different seizes of trunks again loading and parking on the road. If urgent step is not taking the road would be entirely damaged as there are failing portions on the road right now.
