Shadadi, Lanto residents bemoan bad road, lack of bridge

The 15 minutes drive from Shadadi to Kuje is beset with difficulties due to the bad condition of the road. Motorists plying the 1.5 kilometres stretch from the community to Pasali junction said the trip, though short, was hectic especially during the rainy season. Many people, including civil servants, are taking residence in Shadadi in […]

The 15 minutes drive from Shadadi to Kuje is beset with difficulties due to the bad condition of the road. Motorists plying the 1.5 kilometres stretch from the community to Pasali junction said the trip, though short, was hectic especially during the rainy season.

Many people, including civil servants, are taking residence in Shadadi in recent times and the population is growing steadily.

The swelling population has overshadowed the Gbagyi natives in the area.

Some residents have adopted several survival techniques which included leaving their vehicles behind at Kuje and boarding motorcycle to their homes. 

Farmers are mostly affected because they incur losses due to the difficulties in conveying their produce to the markets. 

The road is dotted with potholes, ditches and collapsed box culverts,  leaving motorists with little space to maneuver their way through some of the swampy areas before they could get to their homes.

A commercial motorcyclist, Usman Kabiru, said it was always difficult for them to ply the road, especially at the peak of the rainy season.

He said most cyclists seldom agree to carry passengers to the community due to the bad roads and that the few that did so charged between N150 and N200 to the community from Kuje town.

“It is because that man stopped me that I should pick you, otherwise you hardly see any okadaman that will agree to ride to Shadadi village because of the poor state of the road and sometimes, some suspected motorcycle snatchers attack people in the area,” he said.

He said also hoodlums waylaid commercial motorcyclists, especially on Kuje market days, and dispossessed them of their motorcycles and other valuables.

To them the road is dreaded.

Michael Obinna, a civil servant that resides in the community lamented the deplorable state of the road from Pasali junction, saying he now parked his vehicle at a friend’s house in Kuje town and hired a motorcyclist to his house every evening when returning home from work.

Another resident, Charles Ojukwu, however expressed hope that their challenges might soon be over because the FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, was led by the council chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Galadima and Gomo Kuje, Alhaji Haruna Tanko Jibrin, to inspect the road recently.

“I was sitting in front of my house when the FCT minister and his team inspected the road down to the river side, which I believed is the best that has happened to this community,” he said.

He added, “For me, the minister’s visit is an indication that he is ready to work and not stay in the comfort of his office and expect information from the area councils. And my appeal to him is to expedite action on the road and also construct a bridge across the river,” Ojukwu said. 

“For over three weeks now, I haven’t been able to drive to my house at Shadadi village due to the deplorable state of our road. And it gets worst whenever it rains because some sections are swampy and very risky to drive through,” he said.

A farmer, Isaac Benjamin, said he had harvested melon from his farmland but could not transport it the market at Kuje due to the deplorable road.

“As I am talking to you now, some of the melon have been taken to the river bank by women, but crossing the river is the major challenge that I am facing now because rain fell for three days,” he said.

Mr Ezekiel Musa, the spokesperson of Lanto, also lamented the lack of a bridge to link residents of the community to the neighbouring village and to Kuje town.

He said lack of a bridge across the river that leads to neighbouring Shadadi village has subjected residents to hardship especially farmers who find it difficult to transport their farm produce to Kuje market and Gosa market on Airport road.

“I believe that on your way to this village, you met women and the elderly carrying farm produce on their back. They left this village on their way to Kuje market and they have to risk wading through that river before getting to the market in Kuje,” he said.

According to him, majority of the residents are peasant farmers and are faced with the challenge of good access road. He said residents are always cut off when it rains heavily because the river over flows its bank thereby becoming impassable.

“The only way farmers get their produce to the market is by engaging some of the women who carry farm produce across the river bank. The women drop the goods after descending a hill from where pickup van hired by farmers load and convey the produce to the market,” he added.

The spokesperson further complained over lack of pipe-borne water at the community, saying that all the hand dug boreholes that served the community are in dilapidated state. The residents mostly go to the stream to fetch water for their domestic use, he said.

He also said that the primary healthcare centre is dilapidated as it has not been renovated for a long time as such many people get quality healthcare only after going to clinic or the hospital in Kuje.

He therefore appealed to the council authorities under the leadership of Alhaji Abdullahi D. Galadima, to liaise with the FCT Administration to come to their aid.

He said the community wants the government to construct a bridge across the river and also rehabilitate the road to make their trips safe.

The Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Alhaji Abdullahi D. Galadima, said the council led the minister to inspect the road down to the river bank, and the minister had assured him that engineers would be sent to carry out survey before work will commence on the road and bridge.

“The area council was also worried about the deplorable state of the road at Shadadi and lack of bridge that links it to Lanto village, which was why when the minister came to inspect the Kuje-Gwagwalada road, I drew his attention to the road. He asked me to take him to the road himself,” he said.

Reacting, the Director of Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA), Mrs Victoria Imande, said the minister had already directed her office to engage some engineers to survey and know how best to address the issue of the Shadadi-Lanto road and lack of bridge across the river.