By JOEL GRANDBALL,
The people of Asaba-Ase community in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta has appeal to the state governor, Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to call the contractor handling the 7km Asaba-Ase/Abari road in Ndokwa East and Patani local government areas back to site after it has been abandoned for over one year ago.
In a placard carrying peaceful protest with inscription such as, Asaba-Ase is suffering for lack of road, ‘The Road Master come to our aides’ Our road have been abandoned’, ‘Sen. Nwaboshi, Ossai, Osanebi, Okowa, Buhari please come and help us Asaba -Ase, people’, the coaster community held that their farm produce could not get to the city because of the bad nature of their road.
Addressing newsmen during the protest, President General of the community, Hon Anabogu Nosike Godfrey said, “I still remain here to speak on behalf of my people. My people in Asaba-Ase community have been suffering because of the bad road.
“We have the problem of this road before 2012 and the subsequent government have been coming to say they have been doing this road but thank God Ekuweme, you came to being.
“You awarded this road two three times to persons but the unfortunate part of is, the contract was awarded to persons without names, signpost or whatever and when they came, the drainage we managing before, they came and crushed it and the internal roads were destroyed.
Since the award of the 7km road Asaba-Ase/Abari road by you over a year ago, nothing has not been done. We are begging you Ekuweme to come to our aide, we dropped our written letter with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Works in Asaba about this road and nobody has come to verify.
“The road from Uzere in Isoko South local government to Asaba-Ase was destroyed by the 2012 flood, when the community cried, by the special grace of God intervention came through FERMA and they worked on it. But the 2018 flood destroyed the road and nothing has been done since despite our cry and series of written letters to the concerned authorities.
“Governor Okowa, we know what you can do kindly help to us call FERMA on the Uzere /Asaba-Ase road and prevail on the contractor handling the Asaba-Ase / Abari road back to site to resume the abandoned road construction work in the area to give us sense of belonging.
“We are also facing ecological problem here, erosion is affecting us seriously and if urgent measures are not taken, Asaba-Ase will be wipe out from the earth.
“We need help or else Asaba-Ase the gateway to other coaster communities in Bayelsa, Rivers Anambra and other states will be cut off from the state”. Hon Godfrey pleaded.
Also, the chairman of CDC of the community Chief Benson Opute said, “The problem we are facing is terrible, the only road which is our light is no more, we have been experiencing this bad condition since 2012, we have suffered a lot because of the Asaba-Ase /Abari road that has been abandoned by the contractor handling it.
“The condition we are facing is terrible because the place is extremely bad and any moment from now as the flood is coming, we will not know the state we belong either Delta, Bayelsa or Rivers. We need serious assistance so that we can survive this situation.
“We are being affected by serious erosion and if urgent measures are not taken, other coaster communities will not be reached. We are farmers and because of the terrible road condition we are unable to transport our crops and farm produce to market”.
On his part, the chairman of PTA, Chief Omolu Edward said, “We are calling and appealing to our leaders, President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Sen Peter Nwaboshi, Ossai Ossai, and Friday Osanebi to come to our aides because any moment from now when schools will resume, our children would not be able to go to school because of the bad nature of the road and flood and no teacher will be ready to risk his/her life to come because of the flood.
“The situation Asaba-Ase is facing is terrible because of the terrain. We crying to government to come and help us to salvage the situation so that our children can have access to education. Our children are crying because they cannot write either WAEC or NECO because of the terrible condition of our road.
Both the young and old we crying to the government to help us. Education is light and if our child cannot go to school because of road and flood then Asaba-Ase is finished and lot of things have been abandoned.
“Our only employment is our farms and if there are no roads to market our goods then we are in danger. We are part of Delta state and we also want to feel the presence of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Sen Peter Nwaboshi, Ossai Ossai, and Friday Osanebi and government in Asaba-Ase. We are peace loving people hence this peaceful protest. We are begging please come and help us”.
Mrs. Queen Obodoagu lamented the poor patronage of their farm produce because of the bad nature of our roads, she said, “Customers are no longer coming to buy our goods because of the bad nature of Asaba-Ase road and for that reason our goods coming from the farm are getting bad on daily basis because nobody is coming to buy or trade market with us”.
