Abia communities of Isiala Ntighauzo and Ntighauzo Amairi all in Ntighauzo Ancient Kingdom, Obingwa Local Government Area, recently joined the list of communities that have protested abandonment of road projects in their domain by the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Members of the community- the aged, women, men, youths and children took to the street to express their grievance over untold hardship and excruciating pains the abandoned Apu na Ali and Iferife roads have subjected them to.
What aptly captures the experience the people of those communities could be likened to J.P Clark’s epic poem” The casualties” where he described a category of the Nigerian civil war victims as” those buried by instalment”
True to Clark’s description, some folks from both communities have lost their limbs courtesy of road mishaps recorded on those roads. It will be an effort in futility to enumerate the fortunes lost in replacing motor, motorcycle, tricycle and bicycle tyres lost by the members of those communities on those roads. It is even easier for the Biblical proverbial horse to pass through the eye of the needle than members of the communities to play the roads after rainfall.
To say that the roads are in bad shapes is an understatement. Unfortunately, the contractors handling the roads could not go beyond the stone laying and as the rains continued unabated over the seasons, the stones are exposed rendering the roads precarious.
It would be recalled that protests by Communities have recently trailed NDDC Projects. There had been protest by six communities at Iyekogba area of Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State over the abandonment of road construction awarded by the NDDC and the continued deplorable condition of roads leading to the communities.
Also residents and indigenes of the communities, comprising Evbowe, Uholor, Utangban, Efionayi, Evbuodia and Ulemon, have also taken to the streets of their communities to protest the abandoned road project that was supposed to link the communities from Iyekogba near Ogba River to Upper Ekenwan road leading to Gelegele.
Here is a strong appeal for NDDC to live up to the functions establishing it, which include, the formulation of policies and guidelines for the development of Niger Delta areas; to conceive, plan and implement, with set rules and regulations, projects and programmes for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta area in the field of transportation ( including roads), jetties and waterways, health, education, employment, industrialization, agriculture and fisheries, housing, urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunication; preparing master plans and schemes to promote the physical development of the Niger Delta area and the cost of implementing such master plans and schemes.
Others are tackling ecological and environmental problems arising from the exploration of oil minerals in the Niger Delta and advising the federal government and the member states in the prevention and control of oil spills, gas glaring and environmental pollution; Liaising with the various oil minerals gas prospecting and producing companies on all matters of pollution prevention and control; Assessing and reporting on any project being funded and carried out in the Niger Delta area by gas producing companies and any other company including non-governmental organisations and ensuring that funds released for such are properly utilised.
