Posted by Wole Soyinka Train Station access road in Ogun State partially collapsed, according to JANESCOPE.
The 156 km Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train was commissioned in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, and it includes the Wole Soyinka Train Station as one of its 10 stations.
However, the government failed to take into account the necessity to repair the access road leading to the station when construction of the modern railway station was finished by the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
Many people who used to take the train to get to cities like Lagos and Ibadan are now thinking about switching back to driving.
The 3 kilometers of Kenya/Olokuta/Idi-Aba road was in shambles when our journalist visited the train axis on Saturday.
Erosion has swept away sections of the road, forcing residents to appeal to both the state and federal governments for help.
Chief Ezekiel Olushola, one of the village leaders, said a student and a pregnant woman were killed on the road.
Olushola gave the example of a student walking home from school in Kemta who was fatally struck and killed by an oncoming truck due to the poor condition of the road.
Cab company secretary Olabisi Ogundipe at the train station continued, “We visit our mechanics, just for minor and major repairs on our vehicles, every day.” By the time you’ve included in the cost of fuel and repairs, you’ll have pocketed less than 30% of your total earnings.
Babatunde Folarin, chairman of the communities in the region, stated that locals had spent almost N20 million attempting to repair the road, which he called a “disaster.”
Folarin proclaimed, “It’s blatant, this is an ecological disaster impacting over 52 towns in this area. We have completely sealed off this road. Where do we go from here?
The area’s ability to support itself economically is now gone. To put it bluntly, this is a catastrophe. In other words, it’s a road that has already failed. Less than three kilometers of this route remain. We’ve done all that we can. Palliative care is something we’ve already attempted. We’ve made calls asking for donations, but the locals are exhausted and we don’t have any money at the moment.
The Wole Soyinka Train Station is located down this road. We understand it’s a state road, but if the public can’t use the railway station, we don’t see the point. The government should be ashamed of themselves. This is a new tenure after more than five years of working on this. And what else? We need to know how many years we have to wait. The death toll rises daily.
Folarin requested that President Bola Tinubu and Governor Dapo Abiodun fix the road as soon as possible to help the users, especially those trying to get to the train station.
Olaniyi, a local citizen, praised the Abiodun administration for repairing numerous roads throughout the state and urged it not to overlook the Olokuta train station road.