Ajao Residents Stop Chivita Company From Repairing Bad Roads

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

Motorists and some residents of Ajao Estate in Lagos expressed their dismay over what some described as irrational behaviour by some landlords who allegedly stopped Chivita Company from repairing the bad roads in the area.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the group under the aegis of Landlords Association demanded N20m as permission fee from the management before they will allow them to repair any street that had bad spots or completely washed away.

It was learnt that when the company had obtained permission from the state government to perform their Corporate Social Responsibility by repairing some roads, the association reportedly went to court and stopped the work.

Since then the company retreated and withdrew their services from the people over the threat. This came into limelight following the condition of some roads in the estate and the residents mainly the tenants blamed it on the association for preventing the company from repairing those roads.

P.M.EXPRESS visited the area and confirmed from the residents what transpired between the landlords and Chivita Company over the roads in the area.

A resident simply known as Tunde said he was still surprised and regretted the action of the association to the detriment of the residents. Tunde said that the management actually gave certain amount of money to the residents through the association to repair some roads, but when they discovered that the association did substandard jobs the company then decided to do them on their own which caused the rift.

However, their action seemed to have really backfired as Chivita withdrew and the roads had remained in their deplorable state and unattended by the state government.

Another resident Timothy Ajayi said that the association and the Chivita Company had been working at cross purposes for a  period of time. He specifically mentioned that when there were moves to ban motorcycle operators in the estate, Chivita was against such plan because of its effect on the residents and its workers.

However, the association had its way and “Okada” was outrightly restricted and banned in the area. Ajayi noted that the clash was due to the selfish interest of few people who were overriding the interest of the majority of the residents who were not happy over the development.

Some of the residents who spoke to P.M.EXPRESS advised the association to mend fences with the company so that both can work together to attract the necessary development in the area.

When our correspondent visited the company to know why they abandoned their social responsibility, some top members of the management met declined to make official statement on the matter.

However, a top senior management official at the company confirmed the development,  but did not want his name mentioned.