Unadu Community, Others Groan Under Worst Access Road, Crimes

Unadu Community, Others Groan Under Worst Access Road, Crimes

Chief Jude Amedu

Today In Enugu State, Itchi, Unadu And Alor Agu Communities In Igbo Eze South LGA, All Through To Aguibeje And Imufu In Igbo Eze North Local Government Area Are Groaning Under What Can Best Be Described As The Worst Road Network In Enuu State.

Successive Governments From History Have Refused To Pan Their Eyes Towards This All Important Road Which Serves As Access Route To Farmers For The Evacuation Of Their Farm Produce To The Urban Areas Where These Farm Produce Are Most Desired.

Instructively, All These Communities In Igbo Eze South And North Local Government Areas Contiguously Aligned With Those In Kogi State Where Farming Is Their Major Preoccupation. Year In Year Out, These Farmers Record Huge Losses Because There Is No Single Motorable Road Through Which These Farm Produce Could Be Evacuated To Urban Areas.

            Speaking To The Starlite Newspapers Reporter, A Farmer From Unadu Community, Chief Jude Amedu, Popularly Known As Okanga, Lamented The Negligence Of The Road Network Especially In Igbo Eze South West By Successive Governments Adding That The Villagers Can No Longer Move Out Of The Community Because The Solitary Access Road Had Been Cut Off By Erosion.

            He Said: “I Am Extremely Bitter That Our Roads Have Continued To Be In This Deplorable State For Decades. Every Election Year, Politicians Come Through This Road To Ask For Our Votes Promising To Do The Road But The Moment They Win, They Forget Us. Due To The Bad Nature Of This Road Which Spans Across Several Communities, Most Of The Important Politicians On Campaigns No Longer Find It Necessary To Visit Us. What They Do Is That They Come To The Local Government Headquarters And Ask The Chairmen To Hire Vehicles That Will Come And Carry Us To The Headquarters.

            “I Am A Farmer And I Also Trade On Palm Kernel. I Supply Palm Kernels To Companies That Process PK Oil. When We Are Through With The Initial Processing Of These Kernels, The Companies Come Here To Evacuate. When We Also Harvest Our Cassava Produce, Tomatoes, Yams, Corn And Others, We Find It Difficult To Move These Produce To Either Nkwo Ibagwa Or Eke Ozzi Markets Because There Are No Access Roads From Here. Also, The Road From Here Through Alor Agu, Aguibeje To Eke Ozzi Market In Ogrute Is A No Go Area For Any Vehicle. During The Rainy Season, We Are Of All Farmers And Business People, Most Miserable. Before Our Very Eyes, These Produce Get Rotten Because We Don’t Have The Facilities To Preserve Them. It Is Really A Big Issue Here. Just Last Week, One Of The Trucks That Accepted To Come To Unadu To Pick Our Produce Fell On The Road. The Produce Could Not Be Evacuated And We Had To Abandon Them There In Frustration. The Truck Was There For Weeks Blocking The Only Route Out Of Here.”

            “Apart From The Poor Road Network, Crime Has Taken Over Our Unadu Community And Nobody Seems To Bother. Every Day, There Must Be One Story Or The Other About Burglary And Outright Armed Robbery. Because There Is No Access Road, The Police No Longer Come On Patrol Here. We Used To Have A Police Post But Since Some Unknown Gunmen Attacked The Station Some Years Ago, All The Police Personnel Attached To The Post Have All Relocated To The Divisional Headquarters At Ibagwa Aka. On 28th Of June, A Band Of Armed Robbers Attacked The Family Of Chief Fidelis Agbaji And Made Away With N85,000.00, Money Set Aside By The Wife For Her Business. As I Speak, The Community Borehole Was Vandalized And We No Longer Have Source Of Water Except The Private Boreholes Around. We Have No Power Supply For Weeks Now Because The Community Could No Longer Cope With The Exorbitant Estimated Bills Sent To Us From EEDC. In Fact, We Are In Hell In This Community”.

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