Leaders of White Sand Estate in the Ikotun-Igando Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have alleged that an official of the Lagos State Government has demanded a “huge sum of money” from them to assist the community in getting the attention of relevant authorities to attend to their plight.
PUNCH Metro had on June 12, 2014 reported that the community was battling with poor access roads which were making life and economic activities in the community difficult.
The community had, in the report, also lamented that there was no evidence of government presence in terms of good roads, public school, police post, public hospital or health centre and polling booth.
It was gathered that after the publication, the official came and promised to work on the community’s challenges after which he demanded the bribe as a condition to render any form of assistance.
A resident, who is also the Chairman of the estate community development association, Pastor Adewale Oyewo, explained that they were initially happy to receive a notice from the state secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja, that a government official would be visiting the community.
He said, “Few days after the publication, we got a call that somebody from Alausa will be visiting our community. On June 19, one week after the publication, the official came. We took him round, showed him some of the projects we had undertaken on our own and the terrible state of roads in the community. He promised to channel our demands to the relevant government authorities, but disappointed me totally when he asked us to give him money.
“We had initially given him N20,000, but he told us that the money was for his transport. He added that he would need something huge and reasonable to convince his bosses to help the community.
“This is sad because you cannot rescue a man that is drowning by putting a big stone on his chest. The amount he was asking for can go a long way to execute one or two projects in this community.”
The Vice Chairman of the community, Steve Dike, who is also the chairman of the roads committee, lamented that their effort at making the roads in the community better was negatively affecting the residents financially.
He said the community has raised over N3m since the beginning of the year to provide one amenity or the other.
“The roads in this community are making life unbearable. As it is now, we are completely cut off from the outside world. You cannot drive in or out. Most of us have to park our cars very far from our houses.”
Another resident in the community, Mr. Chris Ojeah, said a director from the ministry of works had also visited the community, but declined to see state the roads.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Works, Obafemi Hamzat, in the reply to a text message sent to him by our correspondent, emphasised that government could not finish everything with regards to roads in one day.
On the bribe allegation, he said, “If there is an allegation like that, they have to report to the police. That is a crime and the police should be involved immediately.”
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