Do you know that there is a zoo in the environs of Ikorodu, Lagos state? This is a mini standard zoo that is along Ibese road, just before the Origin Jetta station, and it houses wild animals. The zoo is named Origin Gardens and Zoo. It also has a museum with artefacts from all over Nigeria. The zoo is the first privately run zoo in Lagos and Nigeria.

About 4 weeks ago, one beautiful morning, a close friend of mine sent me a chat message on BlackBerry messenger that I should dress up, and that we are heading to the zoo in Ikorodu. I was shocked and initially thought he wanted to play pranks on me. When I acted as if it was all a joke, he coaxed me to do a Google Search about the zoo in Ikorodu.

Lo and behold, immediately I typed in my queries on Google search engine, I saw organic search results, a map and opening/closing hours of the zoo. I thought to myself aloud, “this can’t be real”. I have lived the most part of my life in Ikorodu and I have never heard of this place. What have I been doing? Where have I been?

I viewed the map and saw that it was pointing to an area in Ibese, Ebute Ikorodu. The address from Google: beside Origin Jetty off Ibese, TOS Benson Road, Ikorodu. The opening/closing hours for each day were also stated (mostly 8 AM – 6 PM). Then, I proceeded to check the links that mentioned the origin zoo in Ikorodu. I discovered that there were posts from many years ago about the opening which had in attendance the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN who is now the Federal Minister of Works, Power, and Housing for Nigeria. And there were the shocking headlines about the zoo, a lion escaped the zoo and it was spotted on the fence of a factory close to the zoo. Damn, who does that?

See pictures of the wild animals on this link: http://www.rapportnaija.com/2017/03/origin-garden-and-zoo-in-ikorodu-lagos.html