Reporter’s Diary
OFONIME UMANAH
From the Ediba junction, there is a semblance of government’s presence. You can drive with ease, even though the tyres of your car would be crying for mercy, due to the stones that are spread there in the name of road construction. The stones could tear car tyres. But cars can drive pass, on a snail speed though. As you snake through the road towards Ediba, your joy begins to end. By the time you begin to navigate towards the Unsumutong-Abeugo-Bahozure-Ebom-Afafanyi/Igonigoni axis, in the Bahumono Nation of Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State, you begin to wonder if you were heading for the land of no return.
If you were driving a normal car, you may wish to engage the reverse gear. There is no signpost on display to warn motorists that the road is only for hilux or SUVs. As you get closer, you would see glaring signals that you’ve got to the end. From afar, you would have seen that you could not go ahead.
Even with your SUV, you may have to alight from the car, fold your pair of trousers, walk into the muddy water that has split a section of the road into two, to confirm where to place your tyres, before continuing with the journey. The road is not just bad. It is inexcusably and embarrassingly terrible. And there is a local government chairman, Mr Egbala Bassey, who collects an average of N400 million on a monthly basis from the federation account. He is not able to do anything at all to ease the pains of the people there. There is a governor who claims to be running a People’s First government.
On Tuesday, September 8, the community took advantage of the visit of some candidates of the PDP to their domain for consultation ahead of the 2027 election, to cry to the governor for intervention. Mr Elijah Okpirike, a retired DSS personnel, was the first to fire the salvo. While addressing the visitors, he lamented the sorry state of the road and asked for government’s intervention.
A prominent son of the community, Engr. Francis Ohon, who spoke at the rally, expressed sadness over the deplorable condition of the road and pleaded with the government to intervene. He said his presence in the village was a mere happenstance, as he did not know of the visit, but was attracted by the heavy presence of visitors into his community.
The member representing Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Dr Alex Egbona, while addressing chiefs and community leaders from the area, had informed them of the efforts he made to draw the attention of the state governor, Senator Bassey Otu, to the road since 2024, about a year after he assumed office. He also told them that a year after, he had sent a reminder to the governor and equally made verbal reminders, but regretted that the governor was yet to take any action. In fact, he read out all the letters to the people. But he was quick to raise their hopes, that the road was a priority project for him and that he would continue to mount pressure until the road receives the needed attention.
TNN observed that the people of Afafanyi/Igonigoni have already been cut off from the other parts of the state. For those who live outside that community and wish to visit, they either access the area through Afikpo and the waterways, or they stay off the area until the dry season, or they hire an SUV or hilux vehicles to be able to drive into Afafanyi/Igonigoni.
It is a bad situation. Very bad.
