Abandoned bridge: No one travels out of our communities in rainy season — FCT villagers

Residents of Gumanyi and Gurufufu communities in Kwaku ward of Kuje Area Council of the FCT have called on the authorities of the council to complete the abandoned bridge linking the two villages in the area before the rainy season sets in. According to the villagers, once the rain starts, no one travels out of […]

Residents of Gumanyi and Gurufufu communities in Kwaku ward of Kuje Area Council of the FCT have called on the authorities of the council to complete the abandoned bridge linking the two villages in the area before the rainy season sets in.

According to the villagers, once the rain starts, no one travels out of the two communities because of the two rivers in the area.

Some of the villagers, who spoke with Abuja Metro, on Saturday, expressed worry over the abandoned multimillion-naira bridge project, which often causes them hardship at the peak of the rainy season.

The locals, who are mostly farmers, said the two rivers had been the major obstacle as they often cut them off from accessing other neighbouring communities and markets.

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Mr Zakariya Gambo, a resident of Gumanyi, said residents were almost on the verge of having some relief when the authorities of the council commenced the construction of a bridge on one of the rivers two years ago.

He said unfortunately the council authorities suddenly stopped work on the bridge.

He said, “The pillars of the bridge and other casting work had been done over two years now, but the work has stopped. And we are almost approaching the rainy season now when we are often cut off. We are calling on the authorities of Kuje Area Council to come to our aid by completing the work before the rainy season sets in.”

Also speaking, Mr Danjuma Audu, an elder at Gurufufu community, who also spoke with our reporter, noted that residents mostly face serious hardships during the rainy season due to lack of bridges across the river that connect the two villages.

He said farmers mostly lost their farm crops due to lack of access to convey their farm produce to Kwali market, adding that he expected that the authorities of the council would speed up work on the bridge but they completely abandoned it.

He added, “During the rainy season, nobody travels out from either Gumanyi or Gurufufu communities because of the two big rivers that have no bridges. And since the authorities of the area council tried to intervene, one had expected that the bridge should have been completed by now because this is two years now since they stopped work on the bridge.”

He appealed to the authorities of the council under the leadership of Abdullahi Suleiman Sabo to come to the aid of the community in completing the bridge.

The council chairman could not be reached on phone but an official of the works department of the council, who preferred anonymity, told our reporter that the council was making arrangements to mobilise contractors back to the site to complete the bridge.