This Is Jankara Market In Lagos Island Where Traders And Residents Wear Rain Boots To Work

This is not a beach and not to be mistaken for a relaxation area in any way. This is Jankara Shopping area in Idumagbo, Lagos Island. For those who are not used to this place, we will try to give a brief of this area. Jankara can be accessed from different directions, for example, if you are coming from 3rd Mainland, before getting to Obalende, you can come in via Adeniji Adele, from Adeniji to Jankara is about 5mins walking distance, for those coming in via CMS, Tinubu area as well, you can drive and enter from Tom-Jones area, just a walking distance of 5-7mins will lead you to Jankara.

Jankara is an urban area in Lagos Island, it has close boundaries with popular Lagos markets like Oluwole, Balogun, Adeniji Adele, it is also very close to the Oba of Lagos Palace popularly called “Olowo Eko”. Jankara is home to traders and also to business owners, Jankara house many business ventures, for example, those selling mobile phone accessories have a shop in this place popularly called Plaza, also Jankara has a school close to this market called King-Ado Secondary School, A Police Station is also sited close by as well which makes the place a reasonable place for business and for other transactions.

As good as this place might look on paper and on description, people living and doing business here may likely be battling with skin infection diseases if they were to be examined properly especially the students who use this road daily.

Its being 2 years since the drainage of Jankara have refused to flow and after series of outcry to the state government, the local government and all those in the helms of affairs, nothing has been done to this menace. The traders have resorted to fate as they all have rain boots, on a normal day, when it’s not raining and everywhere is dry, Jankara is a beach on its own. AutoReportNG was at Jankara over the weekend for some transaction and we are surprised that despite being a sunny afternoon, the water in this place have refused to go away, in fact, the drainages were blocked right from the main road to the inner corners of the street up to Adenji area where they sell electrical and lighting items.

We spoke to some of the traders over what has been done and if they had informed the state government, they all burst into laughs and said they are even tired of writing letters and calling the government out on social media because they won’t do anything. One of the traders said, I have been to Alausa and we have shown them pictures and videos of this place but nothing was forthcoming, as you can see, we all have bought rain boots, we can’t sleep at home, we have to come to shop and hustle for our daily bread, we hope one of these days, God will touch their hearts and remember us at Jankara Markets.

AutoReportNG went round to see what the problem is and why has the water refused to flow and we note some observations…

1. The main drainage was blocked and can’t flow: There is main drainage close to the police station that all waters pass through, we noticed that the gutter was filled to the brim and refused to flow, also we noticed that sand were much in this gutter which makes it difficult for free flow. The way the drainage systems are now, the water flows backwards instead of forward, considering the fact that the drainage is blocked.

2. The traders sell on the gutter: When the road was constructed, the contractor was kind enough to make some drainages but trust Lagosians to make use of every available space for business, the traders have hijacked the space meant for drainage and converted them to shops.

3. Most buildings were constructed on drainages which is one of the causes of this flood.

We hope the Lagos State Government can come and access this place and find ways to help the traders and residents of this area.

These are some of the photos we can capture, we can’t capture much as the water was itchy to the skin.