Bad Road, Flooding Drive Customers Away From Arepo Businesses
Business owners along Pipeline Road in Arepo, Ogun State, say worsening road conditions are driving customers away and making daily trading more difficult.
After rainfall, traders say parts of the road become muddy and flooded. In drier periods, dust creates another problem for shops along the corridor.
Some motorists now avoid the road altogether. Others park farther away and walk to businesses they still patronise.
For traders, that means fewer customers and more difficult access.
But another question remains unresolved: who is responsible for delivering a lasting repair?
Traders say customers are staying away
A foodstuff trader who has worked in the area for more than a decade said customers increasingly use alternative routes where access is easier.
She said flooding can also interfere directly with trading after heavy rain.
Ruth Iwegbu, who operates a Point of Sale and shoe business, said the road discourages people she invites to patronise her shop.
A cobbler identified as Ola said some customers now ask him to come to them instead of driving into the area.
A tailor, Olamide, complained that dust settles on goods, while a barber said some customers park elsewhere and continue on foot.
The individual experiences differ, but the consequence is consistent: difficult road access is affecting customer movement and business activity along Pipeline Road.
Residents have funded temporary repairs
Residents say they have repeatedly tried to improve the road themselves.
Iwegbu said residents and business owners have contributed to grading efforts.
The community chairman also said Community Development Associations along Pipeline Road had spent money on temporary repairs.
But residents say those interventions deteriorate again after rainfall.
That has left communities paying for short-term fixes without a durable rehabilitation programme.
Community says pipeline clearance stalled work
The community chairman said the Federal Ministry of Works, with support from stakeholders, had begun laying interlocking stones on part of Pipeline Road.
According to him, work stopped after roughly 300 metres because approval was required before heavy construction equipment could operate around pipeline infrastructure.
He said clearance from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company was needed because excavation could affect pipelines in the area.
A cobbler interviewed separately also recalled an earlier community road-improvement effort that stopped after pipeline concerns were raised.
Those accounts have not been independently confirmed by NNPC or the Federal Ministry of Works.
IDNN has not established that pipeline clearance is the reason rehabilitation stopped, nor has it established which authority carries final responsibility for completing the road.
IDNN has also not obtained direct responses from the agencies on those questions.
Until they respond, the pipeline explanation remains an attributed community claim rather than a confirmed institutional position.
No verified figure for business losses
Business owners interviewed along the road say the conditions are hurting trade, but there is no independently verified estimate of their combined financial losses.
IDNN is therefore not assigning a monetary value to the impact.
What the interviews establish is narrower but clear: traders report fewer customers, harder vehicle access and disrupted business activity.
Three questions for authorities
The Pipeline Road problem now turns on three unanswered questions:
Which government agency is responsible for rehabilitating the road?
Has NNPC formally restricted or conditioned construction because of pipeline infrastructure?
If excavation is restricted, what alternative engineering solution has been approved to provide reliable access?
Until those questions are answered, residents and businesses remain caught between a deteriorating road and an unresolved responsibility gap.
For traders along Pipeline Road, that gap has an everyday consequence: when customers cannot easily reach a business, the road itself becomes part of the cost of doing business.
