Work stops on bridge connecting 16 FCT communities

Residents of Gurfufu, Agweh, Zagabutu, Gumanyi, Gbede, Zhizhimbga, Gadoro, Gatsana, and eight other communities under Kwaku ward in Kuje Area Council of the FCT have expressed concern over the abandonment of a multi-million naira bridge project by the council authorities. Some residents of the communities, who spoke when Abuja Metro visited the villages on Saturday, […]

Residents of Gurfufu, Agweh, Zagabutu, Gumanyi, Gbede, Zhizhimbga, Gadoro, Gatsana, and eight other communities under Kwaku ward in Kuje Area Council of the FCT have expressed concern over the abandonment of a multi-million naira bridge project by the council authorities.

Some residents of the communities, who spoke when Abuja Metro visited the villages on Saturday, said the bridge project, being executed by the council chairman, Alhaji Suleiman Sabo, was abandoned over two years ago.

According to the locals, the bridge is the only route that connects them to other neighboring villages and also links to the Kwaku community.

Mr. Barnabas Danjuma, a community leader in Gurfufu village, said the abandoned bridge, according to the plan, should have been completed two years ago to ease movement for residents, especially the farmers, to transport their farm produce to the Kwaku market.

He said residents in neighbouring villages suffered untold hardship during the rainy season as they could not cross the river.

“The villagers expected that since this year’s rain stopped, the Kuje Area Council authorities should have taken advantage of the dry season to mobilize the contractor back to site to continue with the work,” he said.

According to him, during last year’s rainy season, three farmers drowned while trying to cross with their motorcycles to access Kwaku village market to sell their harvested crops.

He said the communities’ elders had set up a committee, which he headed, and wrote to the council chairman on the need to mobilize contractors back to site to continue with the work, but there was no positive response from the council.

“I was the one who headed the committee, and members were picked from the 16 neighbouring villages to meet with the council chairman, Abdullahi Suleiman Sabo, after three farmers got drowned at that river during last year’s rainy season. But up till this moment as I am talking to you, nothing has been done,” he said.

He noted that though some of the workers handling the bridge project visited the site a month ago, they left after informing the village chief that they would return to the site to continue with the work.

“I think some of the workers, led by the site engineer, came here sometime last month and said they would soon return to site, but since then, we have not heard from them again,” he said.

He noted that 95 percent of the rural dwellers were peasant farmers, who produce a lot of farm produce and transport them to the Kwaku market, adding that absence of the bridge has always been their bottleneck.

According to him, although the area council graded some rural roads early last year, which link to several villages in the area, the major obstacle facing residents of the communities has been the abandoned bridge.

Another community leader in Agweh village, Shuaibu Ibrahim, a renowned farmer in the community, said the bridge has become a nightmare for residents of the community and other neighbouring villages in the area.

He said some farmers who have farms across the river find it difficult to access them whenever it rains heavily because of flooding, which he said sometimes forced farmers to return to their villages.

The chief of the community, a retired civil servant, Mr. Azaki Yakubu, said it was unfortunate that despite the huge monthly allocation to the area council, the authorities have been finding it difficult to complete the bridge.

He said the area council has been paying more attention to Kuje town, abandoning the rural communities to the mercy of bad road network, which, he said, has continued to cause untold hardship to the rural dwellers.

“Apart from the grading of some rural roads, there are no other visible projects at the rural communities. And that bridge you saw while coming has been abandoned for over two years now, while access to healthcare and portable water are not there,” he said.

He said 80 percent of the villagers source their drinking water from either a dry stream or a pond, from where cows also drink.

“If you want to believe what I am telling you, find time to come around during late December, you will see what our women are passing through while searching for water,” he said.

Yakubu said there were several abandoned hand-dug boreholes and some overhead tanks, which have broken down without any move by the area council to repair them or sink new ones.

“Now that election is approaching, you will start seeing them coming to campaign and be promising heaven and earth, but after the election, you will not see them again. In fact, the worst of it is the state of primary schools in many villages in this axis, which are all in dilapidated state,” he added.

According to him, the dilapidated state of the schools has discouraged parents from sending their children to school, saying teachers posted to some of the schools also hardly show up.

The chief called on the authorities of the council to take advantage of the dry season to mobilize contractors back to the site to continue with the abandoned bridge project.

He also urged the council authorities to rehabilitate some of the broken-down boreholes or sink new ones in order to tackle the perennial water problem facing the villagers, especially at the peak of every dry season.

Our reporter, who visited the abandoned bridge, observed that only concrete pillars were constructed across the river, while cyclists and villagers wade through the water to cross to the next community.

Reacting, a senior official in the Works Department of the council, who spoke to our reporter by telephone, said arrangements were being put in place to mobilize contractors back to the site to complete the project.

He disclosed that the delay in the completion of the bridge was due to the workload that was hanging on the council, saying the council chairman was trying to settle contractors that have finished some road projects within the Kuje metropolis.

“Actually, you know the chairman has awarded several road projects, especially within Kuje town, and he is trying to see how he can settle the contractors that have completed their projects, which is what led to the delay in completing that bridge in Gurfufu village, but God willing, before the end of December, the contractor will be back to site,” he said.