Landlords and residents of Tunde Afolabi Street, a residential area in Ajah area of Lagos State, have petitioned Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the illegal and reckless activities of sand dredgers in the community.
This is as the association said the sand dredgers have used their trucks to destroy roads, disrupt movements, and instill psychological trauma on landlords and residents of the street, adding that the operators are daily frustrating the administration’s urban renewal programme.
The petition, filed on behalf of the association by its solicitor, SkyFall Partners and signed by Cookel Oke George, urged the government to deploy the state’s special task force and KAI Brigade to curtail the excess activities of the dredgers and their trucks in Ajah especially on Tunde Afolabi Street.
While lamenting the refusal of the dredging operators to obey an earlier directive to cease operation until a suitable parking arrangement is made for them, the association said the recklessness of the truck drivers is endangering lives and properties within the estate.
The petition reads: “We are solicitors who act on behalf of the Landlord and Resident Association of Tunde Afolabi Street, Ajah, Lagos. First and foremost is to commend Your Excellency for the giant strides you have attained which have been evident in various sectors of our beloved Lagos State. The most recent of them all is in the area of housing in Lagos HOMS Lekki Phase II, on Wednesday, January 27,2021.
“Be that as it may, it is very crucial that we bring to the attention of Your Excellency,a state of emergency in one of the regions which experienced an enviable urban renewal. It is the Ajah region and more particularly, Tunde Afolabi Street.
“Sir, these dredgers were adequately informed to cease operation and so shall it be until they have put in place adequate/proper parking arrangements for all the tippers serving their interest.
“Sadly and most regrettably, the sand dredging operators have deliberately refused to shut down their sand dredging operations. They have religiously breached the above action point reached. Their actions have frustrated the administration’s effort to free the Ajah interchange and achieve enduring peace as canvassed by the Hon. Commissioner for Transport and the Hon. Commissioner for Physical Planning.”
Explaining the effect of the illegal activities on residents and infrastructure in the area, the association said, “It will interest Your Excellency to know that the sand dredging operators has escalated their impunity on our client’s street with reckless abandon. This has led to enormous disturbance, road dilapidation and psychological trauma exerted on the residents owing to the illegal activities of the sand dredging operators.
“Their tippers regularly ply the street road on continuous bases. In fact, the residents cannot even drive out of their homes in the morning to work or take their children to school. The truck drivers drive recklessly thereby endangering lives and properties within the estate.”
The petition also stressed that the high rate of indiscipline by the sand dredging operators is largely responsible for the traffic congestion on Ajah axis, adding that, “This impunity is causing traffic snarl on the Saliu Obodo Road, Gbolagas /Gedegede Road beside Mega Chicken,Ogombo–Sangotedo road to mention just a few.
“These actions will continue to be a clog in the wheel of development in the urban renewal project of freeing the traffic on Addo –Badore Road, by linking up with Lekki-Epe expressway,” the petition reads in part.
Expressing its request to the governor, the association said, “In view of the above, we shall be seeking the merciful indulgence and good pleasure of Your Excellency to use your good offices to wade into this matter immediately because the dredgers are ever-ready to continue their acts of carnage and irresponsibility on our client’s residential street.
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“We shall be grateful if Your Excellency can put into action the Lagos Special TaskForce/KAIBrigade. Let them be deployed to stop the activities of these indisciplined sand operators.
“Consequently, we kindly request that urgent steps be taken to stop the dredgers immediately from using their heavy-duty trucks i.e tippers on Tunde Afolabi Street. The street is so narrow and during the period they drove recklessly on the road a lot of considerable damage was recorded.
“As a matter of fact, the road on Tunde Afolabi is for residential commuting and not for commercial activities. If these measures are complied with, it will no doubt be in harmony with one of the resolutions reached at the emergency meeting held by Hon. Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Frederic Oladehinde with all stakeholders on the 28th of January,2021, at Alausa,Ikeja,Lagos,” the Tunde Afolabi residents said.
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