Residents of Eziukwu and Asaokpuja communities in Aba South Local Government Area of Abia State have appealed to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to reduce their suffering by reconstructing their closed and deplorable roads.
They named the roads as Omuma Road, Saint Eugene Road, Cemetery Road, Power-Line, New Market Road, Amaukwu Road and the Old Express.
A resident, who is a patent medicine dealer, Mrs. Kelechi Osita, regretted that all the roads connecting the two important communities were all in deplorable situation and that the situation was increasing their hardship.
She said that the environment of Eziukwu community, especially Omuma Road and the Old Express had become too dangerous for everyone, especially children.
According to her, stagnant water that usually submerges the streets which children, nursing mothers and pregnant women dip their feet into daily makes them to fall sick because the water bear germs causing diseases.
Osita said the residents of the area now suffer common diseases as a result of our environment noting that there is no single refuse receptacle available to them causing the refuse to mix with water.
She said: “We’re suffering from all kinds of diseases, both internal and external, but most painful is that our children and adults suffer many diseases from diarrhoea to measles, typhoid and malaria.”
Some of the residents said that the last time they had good roads in the area was between 1979 and 1983, when Sam Mbakwe was the governor of old Imo State.
Mazi Agwu Okoronkwo, a tailor and resident of 207 Omuma Road, off Ama-Pope, said all corners of the popular Omuma Road had been transformed to emergency farmland for cocoyam and bitter leaf plant.
According to him, the centre of the road, which turns swampy during the rains, provides an aquatic habitat where residents claimed they now fish from when it rains.
He said: “From the time of Orji Uzor Kalu we could at least access Omuma to Samek Junction and move from there to Uratta.
“But from T. A. Orji to this time under Ikpeazu, to access from No. 1, Omuma to Ama-Pope with a vehicle will only take a miracle because it’s now impossible.
“They usually come to Saint Peter Catholic Church, Eziukwu, Aba, that is right behind you there at 208 Omuma Road to make us promises every election year and here is their promise.
“Whenever the rain comes, my family and our neighbours will become fishermen. We catch fish around the entire submerged environment. I don’t know where they usually come from, but it is now our life here. We are not asking for too much, we only want this road fixed.
“Today government is losing huge money from the neglect of this place because the revenue they collected from here several years back, they cannot come here again because nobody will pay and they do not have road to come for it.”
Our reporter, who visited the affected roads especially Omuma Road and its surroundings, described the environment as detrimental to human health unfit for human habitation.
The Commissioner for Works, Bob Ogu, said government had commenced plans to reconstruct Omuma and other roads in Aba South Local Government Area to ease their suffering.
Ogu gave the assurance in response to the call by residents of Eziukwu and Asa-Okpuaja communities hosting Omuma, Old Express, Cemetery and New Market roads and Power-Line.
The commissioner disclosed this in an interview with New Telegraph in Aba yesterday.
According to him, a delegation led by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu recently visited African Development Bank (AFDB) to seek assistance to enable it to carry out some of projects.
He said: “We have plans for all those roads, Omuma Road inclusive. You must have heard that we went to African Development Bank in Abidjan. By Friday, they will be opening the financial bid for the designing of the roads that would be constructed.
“So before the end of this month, I am sure that the consultant that would design those roads would have been engaged and would start the process.
“I know that Omuma Road, Ohanku Road, Ngwa Road and Obohia Road as many as most of the roads in Aba South are included in the roads to be designed and constructed.” (New Telegraph)
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