FCT villagers decry lack of road, bridge

Residents of Tupa community in Rimba-Ebagi ward, Abaji Area Council of the FCT, have expressed concern over the lack of a bridge across the river that connects the community with Abaji town. They also complained about the dilapidated state of the road that connects the community to neighboring Kpokpolobi village in the area. Some residents […]

Residents of Tupa community in Rimba-Ebagi ward, Abaji Area Council of the FCT, have expressed concern over the lack of a bridge across the river that connects the community with Abaji town.

They also complained about the dilapidated state of the road that connects the community to neighboring Kpokpolobi village in the area.

Some residents of the community who spoke when Abuja Metro visited the community on Saturday, said the lack of a good access road has been their challenge over the years.

Mr. Sheneni James, an elder of the community, said the deplorable state of the road is a serious nightmare not only to the villagers but also to farmers who find it difficult to transport their farm produce to Abaji market.

He said the situation usually gets worse during the rainy season, saying residents are cut off from accessing neighboring Kpokpolobi village and Abaji town.

According to him, the only big river that connects Kpokpolobi and Tupa village is always flooded whenever it rains heavily, thereby making villagers stranded for days.

“If you noticed that river we crossed while coming to this village where a local wooden bridge was constructed, there are times that one cannot cross it, especially whenever it rains heavily. Villagers, upon getting to that river, have to turn back home until after one or two days when the water level has subsided before they can now cross,” he said.

A farmer in the community, Ayuba Gwatana, said he always finds it difficult whenever he wants to cross the river with his harvested crops to Abaji market.

He said he mostly engaged some women to carry the harvested crops on their heads to cross the wooden bridge before a pickup van loads them to Abaji market.

“Even now that we are in the dry season, women have to carry harvested crops on their heads and shoulders to cross the wooden bridge before a vehicle will now carry them to the market in Abaji, which normally holds every five days,” he said.

Ayuba said some crops perish at the farm because of the lack of a good road to transport them to the market in Abaji.

“For tomatoes and fresh peppers, which are mostly cultivated by some of the villagers, including some Fulanis that stay with us here in this village, the situation is terrible. Just about two weeks ago, some pepper and tomatoes that were harvested waiting to be taken to Abaji market got perished because there was no vehicle to convey them to the market because of the bad road network,” he stated.

He said it was unfortunate that despite the community being blessed with fertile farmlands, the lack of a good access road network has been the major challenge facing its people.

Village chief seeks government intervention

Meanwhile, the chief of Tupa community, HRH Aguma Alhassan Paul, also expressed concern over the deplorable state of the community road, while urging the government to intervene by fixing it.

He said the lack of a good access road has continued to cause untold hardships on his subjects, especially farmers who transport their harvest to the market in Abaji to sell.

“How I wish you had come here during the rainy season; accessing this community would have been difficult, especially crossing that river. I even had to mobilize my people to contribute money and gave it to a timber operator to cut timbers and engaged a carpenter to construct the wooden bridge across that river,” he said.

The chief said apart from the lack of a bridge and dilapidated road, the community lacks viable social amenities such as pipe-borne water, a standard primary school, a clinic, and instructional materials that will enable their children to compete favorably with their counterparts in other schools in Abaji.

He also stated that the community has some unemployed graduates, while appealing to the government to assist in employing some of them so that they will become self-reliant.

“In fact, I can tell you that the polling unit has been in this village for over 30 years. Politicians only remember to come here during electioneering campaigns. And after the campaign, even when we told them our challenges, you will not see them again till when another election season comes again,” he said.

Reacting, the chief of staff to the chairman of the council, Mohammed Kandi, said the council had already taken note of some challenges facing the community, especially the deplorable road linking Kpokpolobi to Tupa village.

He said the council chairman had, during his campaign to the community two weeks ago, took note of such challenges, which he said will be captured in the council’s budget.