Residents of Orimerunmu Community in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State have appealed to the state government to establish a public secondary school and construct a pedestrian bridge at Olowotedo Junction to ease the challenges faced by schoolchildren in the area. The residents appealed while speaking with a PUNCH Metro correspondent during a visit to the community on Monday. Orimerunmu is located several kilometres from Ibafo, forcing residents and schoolchildren to travel through Olowotedo Junction to access secondary schools in neighbouring communities.
Residents said the absence of a government-owned secondary school had compelled children to travel to Ibafo, Mowe, Magboro and Ojodu Berger to continue their education, exposing them to transportation difficulties and the dangers of crossing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. A parent, Iyabo Tolani, said her daughter attends Ibafo Community High School and has to trek from their home to Olowotedo bus stop before continuing the journey to school. Tolani said she spends about N700 daily on her daughter’s transportation and sometimes keeps her at home when she cannot afford the fare. She said, “The major issue is crossing the expressway.
They don’t usually stop at Ibafo; they drop at Ago Igbala because that is the fastest route to the school. Only God is saving them every day. Sometimes, if I don’t have enough money, she will stay at home.” Another parent, Kehinde Bakare, said the daily journey had become stressful because of the need to cross the expressway. Bakare, who said she takes her child to the bus stop in the morning and waits at Olowotedo in the afternoon, called for the construction of a pedestrian bridge at the junction.
She said, “We are appealing to the government to establish a government secondary school here in Orimerunmu and also construct a pedestrian bridge for crossing at Olowotedo Junction.” A student, Aminat, who attends Community High School, Ibafo, also identified crossing the expressway as one of the major challenges confronting students from the community. Similarly, Mrs Shittu said the absence of a government secondary school had placed an additional burden on families. She said, “The government secondary school we don’t have in Orimerunmu is not good at all. Community High School in Ibafo is where our children are going.
The government should please help us to intervene.” Another parent, Elizabeth, said families whose children attend schools outside Orimerunmu were burdened by transportation costs. She said children travelling to schools in Berger, Magboro, Mowe and Ibafo sometimes got stranded because of traffic congestion and a shortage of buses. Speaking on efforts to secure a secondary school for the community, the Secretary to the Baale-in-Council, Ariyo Olalekan, said residents had repeatedly written to the Ministry of Education but had yet to receive a response. “We have written a letter to the Ministry of Education several times, but till now there has been no feedback. There was even a time we had a link from Abuja.
We wrote the letter and sent it there, but now, no response,” he said. Olalekan said the existing primary school also served children from neighbouring communities, including Oriyanrin, Amu and Ilate. He noted that the community had land that could be used for a secondary school, although some portions had been occupied. Olalekan added that a company in the community had constructed a storey building containing about four or five classrooms, which residents hoped could be used to commence Junior Secondary School classes.
According to him, the danger of crossing the expressway had also heightened parents’ concerns about sending their children to schools outside the community. “The crossing of the expressway has been claiming so many children’s lives. There is no pedestrian bridge in Olowotedo yet. So we are appealing to the government, either state or local government, to please help us,” Olalekan said. Olalekan appealed to the government to establish a secondary school in Orimerunmu and provide safer means of crossing the expressway for students.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Prof Abayomi Adelaja Arigbabu, could not be reached for comments, as calls made to his telephone line were not answered. A text message sent to him had also not been replied to as of the time of filing this report.
