By Seyi Odewale
Residents of the Magodo GRA Phase II Estate in Lagos, yesterday, sent a Save Our Souls (SOS) to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, following the invasion of the estate and the threat to their safety and security due to incessant forceful access by unauthorised persons to the wetlands around the estate.
According to them, land speculators and developers, aided by top officials of Lagos State Physical Planning and Urban Development, have decided on building the wetland and are bent on making an incursion into the estate through Magodo Phase II, noting that the plan was a direct threat to the environment, safety and security of a community with over 16,000 residents, who have lived peacefully and secured the estate for more than three decades.
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They, therefore, called for the governor’s urgent intervention “to forestall the breakdown of law and order in the estate and the state, which some people aided by the Commissioner for Physical Planning, Dr Oluyinka Olumide; and the Chairperson of Ikosi Isheri Local Government, Mrs Samiat Abolanle Bada; who are top Lagos State government functionaries, set to ignite for reasons best known to them.”
They appealed to Governor Sanwo-Olu yesterday during a press conference addressed by its Chairman, Sheriff Daramola, in the company of the Board of Trustees, Central Consultative Council, Central Management Council, executive members, and residents of the estate.
Daramola implored the Lagos State Government to desist from any plan to build link roads to the wetland through Magodo Phase II Estate, but instead construct a road from the Otedola underpass which is currently free of development and unencumbered.
According to him, the residents, in the last six months, had experienced serial vandalisation of vehicles, theft cases, and criminal activities as a result of exposure to the wetland by land speculators and developers who were bent on making an incursion therein through the estate.
Daramola, who commended the Commissioner for Environment in the state, Tokunbo Wahab, for his recent visit to Magodo Phase II where he emphasised the significance of the wetland and its implications for development, wondered why the Commissioner for Physical Planning, Dr Oluyinka Olumide, wanted land speculators and developers to access the wetland through Magodo Estate.
He said, “We commend Mr. Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for his unwavering support and commitment to his promises not to allow access through the wetlands from Magodo Phase II in our tripartite meeting in the past and in his support to ensure continuous peace in our Magodo Phase II community and Lagos State as a whole.
“Mr Governor, sir, we have those that are warming up to distort and destroy the peace and harmony we enjoy in Magodo Phase II; to add to the security concerns in the estate and Lagos State by forcefully planning to access the wetland through Magodo Phase II despite alternative routes listed outside Magodo Phase II. Accessing the wetland through Magodo Phase II shall create further damage and shall be colossal.”
A former Lagos State Commissioner, Francisco Abosede, a town planner and a resident in the Magodo GRA Phase II Estate, said the wetland among other ecological benefits, served as a natural storm collector and flood control container for all stormwater from Agidingbi, Ikeja, Ogba, Alausa, as it had also shielded Magodo from soil erosion, flooding and flood-related diseases and disasters over the decades.
He said forcing access to the wetland through Magodo Phase II in the proposed urban development scheme, would have consequences for the existence of Magodo Phase II and its residents, adding that using Magodo GRA Phase II to access the wetland was to destroy the fragile infrastructure the residents have collectively managed and maintained and with supports from the Lagos State government.
