Enugu Community Cries For Help Over Bad Roads

The people of Ihuokpara in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State have cried out to government to save them from being cut off from the rest of the state due to bad roads.

Speaking on behalf of the community, its traditional ruler, Chief Fidelis Nwatu, called on the state government to intervene quickly before much damage was done to the community by the rainy season.

The community told newsmen in Enugu on Wednesday that the community was particularly worried about the main road that traversed the community to Ebonyi that had been in deplorable state for many years.

They called on the state and federal government to come to their rescue as they did not know where to run to.

“I am calling on Enugu State to please come to our aid because our roads are so bad.

“The major road from Agbani that passed through Akpugo and Amagunze is so bad that if not for community effort, we would have been cut off completely.

“They should do something before December.  We are an agrarian community and our people are finding it difficult to transport our Agric products to other areas.

“We produce food, such as rice, cassava and yam in large quantity.  We have a rice plant.  Our problem is that we don’t have good roads.

“We are cut off during the rainy season.  For some years now, we have been suffering,” he said.

Nwatu also noted that whereas the roads were bad in rainy season, they raised so much dust during dry season and this had been causing epidemic in the area.

The traditional ruler equally lamented the absence of electricity because Enugu Electricity Distribution Commission, EEDC, disconnected the community many months ago when the people could not pay the exorbitant bills brought to them.

He said that they were provided with a bulk meter but the bill had overwhelmed his people and EEDC could not provide consumers with prepaid meters.

Also speaking, the Vice President of the Town Union, Apostle Francis Uzoechi, and a catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Bartholomew Ozokeke, also pleaded with the state government as well as the Federal Government to come to their aid.

According to Uzoechi, our major problem in this community is bad road.

“The community is spending a lot of money trying to maintain our roads.  We levy individuals so that we can hire bulldozers to repair our roads.”

Uzoechi lamented that when the people used stones and chippings to compact the roads, because of their swampy nature, the stones sank while the roads became worse.

He, therefore, urged the government to do something urgently.

Rev. Fr. Ozokeke, who said that he was posted to the community in September last year, stated that he had to abandon his vehicle and used motorcycle instead to navigate through the bad roads.

Ozokeke expressed worry that whenever it rained some of his parishioners would not come to mass because of the poor state of the roads.

“When rains fall, parishioners will not come to church because of bad roads.

“People find it difficult to move about during the rainy season here,” he stated.