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From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Residents of Obeagu Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have no single social amenity that makes life worth living. They cannot boast of any healthcare facility, potable water, functional school or electricity. In addition, the only road that leads to the area is in a very deplorable state.
So, indigenes of the community living in towns and cities only return home during the dry season. Those who dare to come home in the rainy season have unpalatable tales to tell, just as many visitors to the community would not wish a return visit.
That was exactly the situation when a delegation of the Enugu State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), attended the burial of one of its members’ parents, in the community, recently.
Despite the proximity of the place to Enugu, some of the journalists openly thanked God that they did not make the trip with their cars. The high spirit with which they took off for the trip was extinguished shortly after the union’s bus conveying them veered off the Nkalagu-Eha-Amufu-Ikem Road. On about eight occasions, the occupants got down from the vehicle and walked past some marshy and very terrible spots, while the driver struggled to swerve the bus out of danger zone. Notwithstanding, the vehicle was trapped six times and had to be pushed out of the grip. Two other vehicles conveying goods to the community were seen abandoned at different bad spots by their owners. The story was not particularly different when the journalists were going back after the burial, though because of the effect of the sun later that day, many messy portions of the road had become dry and firm.
One other thing noticed during the trip was that the whole place looked desolate with farmlands stretching into kilometres.
A turn on the Enugu-Nkalagu-Egedegede-Eha-Amufu-Ikem-Obollo-Afor Road, leads to the agrarian community of Obeagu where the people have been abandoned to fate by successive governments.
It was gathered that the terrible state of the road during the rainy season made residents of the area resort to conveying bodies of their deceased relations to the mortuaries in neighbouring Egedegede community in Ishielu, Eha-Amufu in Isiuzo, Enugu State and other places on motorcycles.
During a burial, if the body is coming from Egedegede mortuary, the bereaved family might have to procure the services of willing young men to carry the corpse on their heads for several kilometres to some dry area, before a motorcycle would then finish the job.
Truth is that Obeagu community is cut off from the rest of the state, due to lack of access roads. Visiting the community is a nightmare as it is best accessed through a track road by foot or by motorcycle.
In the community, expectant mothers go through hell before they could access medical care. Children trek for hours under the scorching sun and the rain to go to school.
What the people experience due to the absence of basic infrastructure and social amenities is unbearable. They practically live like refugees in their father’s land with nobody showing concern.
Moved by what the journalists experienced during their trip to the community for burial in May, Saturday Sun visited the area again last week.
A commercial motorcyclist who conveyed our reporter on the trip called the place “an abandoned community in Ebonyi State.”
He spoke further: “I don’t know the kind of offence they committed that made administration after administration in Ebonyi State to forget them. No access road, no hospital and no clean water. The only secondary school in the community is completely in ruins. You hardly find teachers in the school after some teachers posted to the school were massacred in April 2021 by Fulani herdsmen.
“All the teachers posted to the school from outside the community visit once or twice in a month. Even some indigenous teachers posted to the college have also abandoned the school. Most of them live in Enugu and Abakaliki and visit the school once or twice in a month.
“The only secondary school built through community efforts was burnt while two blocks of two classrooms each were destroyed by rainstorm. I learnt that the incident happened over three years now without any attention.”
Our finding was that the only government health centre situated along the road has only one government employed staff. But the person, it was gathered, hardly visits the facility because of the security risk of coming to the community. Hence, the centre with no electricity and water is now manned by two community health volunteers.
“The health centre lacks basic drugs and qualified health personnel. That is why pregnant women hardly patronise the facility. They would rather visit local birth attendants,” a resident, Emeka Emeh said.
Lamenting the development, a former councillor of Obeagu Ward, Ede Ejike said: “I cannot fathom the reason behind the abandonment of our community. When I was a councillor, there was nothing I did not do to draw the attention of the council chairman then to build drainage culverts along our only road for easy access. But like every average Nigerian politician, he promised but did nothing.
“The then chairman, who is currently representing Ishielu North State Constituency in Ebonyi State House of Assembly, asked me to get an engineer to identify how many drainage culverts that should be constructed on the road. Unfortunately, after everything, he refused to fund it. You passed the road, at least, you can tell our story better. Seeing is believing.”
Ede said that 10 residents of the community had been allegedly killed along the road by Fulani herdsmen and seven others kidnapped because of the terrible state of the road.
He further lamented: “Herdsmen routinely lay siege along the road and kill and abduct residents, who they then take to Benue State for ransom. Politicians from this community are seriously lobbying those in authority to look our way, but nothing is forthcoming.
“My community is like an orphan that has nobody to speak or intercede for her in the government. Our neighbouring community, Nkalaha is suffering from the same situation. The two communities are boundary communities. During the administration of former Governor David Umahi, who is now Minister of Works, our people made several entreaties to the administration to at least construct the only access roads to the two communities. But after promises, nothing happened.
“We are now in a new administration; we hope that the administration of Governor Francis Nwifuru will not look the other way like previous administrations. The more years pass by, the worse our situation becomes. There’s no electricity in the community because the two transformers there got spoiled. For four years now that the first transformer spoiled, that section of the community has not had electricity supply. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has asked them to buy transformer to replace it. They have paid close to N1.5million to the DisCo. Now, the second transformer supplying electricity to the second part of the community has packed up. For over eight months now, EEDC hasn’t repaired the transformer.”
Another former councillor of the community, Chief Casmir Eze, described the fate of his community, Obeagu Ward “as a very bad omen,” adding that the worse that has befallen them is the incessant attack by herdsmen who take advantage of the deplorable road to cause havoc.
According to him, due to lack of access road, bandits masquerading as herdsmen had attacked the community and brutally murdered 18 young men on March 29, 2021.
“On October 13, 2022, they returned and killed one young man, kidnapped three others and injured two. After collecting ransom, they released the three. This year, June 17, they attacked again, killed one and kidnapped a 12-year-old school girl. It has become a routine. The local vigilante group was dislodged by the Nigerian military when they invaded the community in the guise of flushing out members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“So, our problems are numerous. If it is only carrying corpses on the head and walking several kilometres, or conveying them to the mortuary on a commercial motorcycle, we would hope that one day, the government would remember the community,” the ex-councillor said.
He also explained why residents of the community conveyed bodies on bike. Still blaming this on the deplorable state of their road, he noted that families would prefer to keep bodies of their loved ones in mortuaries in neighbouring communities until the dry season when the road could be passable.
“So, because of mud nearly all through, they can’t bring their dead ones to bury until when the road is dry; maybe from the middle of November, December and January, they start bringing their dead ones to bury. Within this period, you see a lot of burial ceremonies here. That’s what we do.
“Our youths are trying – sometimes they go and dig gutters in all the places that are terribly bad to create water ways. So, this is what the youths have been doing. Sometimes they clear the road and make it passable, they will create a channel where the water will pass and that is what we have been doing to alleviate the problem.
He informed that people of the area have continuously pleaded with the government at both local and state levels, to no avail. “Even when the then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo came after the first Fulani herdsmen attack, the Governor of Ebonyi State at the period, told him that the road needed to be constructed, that the road is bad. That road is about 10km from Egedegede Junction to the railway crossing in the heart of the community. It is not much, but it is not what the community can do on its own. So, we beg the government to help us do something about the road.
“You can imagine carrying a corpse on the head or conveying it on a motorcycle to the mortuary for several kilometres because of bad road. This is the reality we face every single day.”
President General of Obeagu community, Kenneth Okoh, also said the development was painful and difficult. “In fact, we have been suffering a lot right from inception because if you come to our road, it is the worst road in Ishielu Local Government area of Ebonyi State. And because of the bad road, our people were slaughtered like goats on the road. Because of the deplorable state of our only access road to the outside world, during rainy season you will find it difficult to come to the community.
“We are begging the government to come to our aid because most of our boys are being wasted and slaughtered like goats on the road.”
Okafor Nwa-Ogenye, a commercial motorcyclist who specialised in conveying bodies to the mortuaries, just like the hearse, said his line of business was not easy, stressing that it is not every motorcyclist that could do it.
“Whenever it rains people complain so much about high transport fares because of bad roads. If someone dies, before you convey the body to the mortuary located in our neighbouring community, Eha-Amufu, we charge relations between N18,000 and N25,000, depending on the state of the road. At times, if it rains, we charge N30,000 to convey the body to the mortuary. Vehicles don’t come here when it rains and more especially during the rainy season. For those who died in the city, if their people want to bury them at home, there is a spot where they will get to, they will need a motorcycle or wheelbarrow to take the body down to the community,” he narrated.
Another Okada operator, Okechukwu Anyanwu, described conveying body on a motorcycle as a most difficult job in commercial motorcycling. “No matter how bad the road may be, you must not fall with the corpse or bring it down until you get to the mortuary,” he said.
He emphasised that due to attacks by herdsmen, okada operators do not stay beyond 4.00pm at Nkalagu and Eha-Amufu before rushing home to safety.
Ayanwu disclosed that they had discovered that every attack on the road happened between 4:30pm and 6:30pm.
An octogenarian, Elder Olinya Abaru, further highlighted the plight of his people, due to lack of basic social amenities. He noted that the community with over 8,000 population lacks a functional hospital.
“There is no hospital in the community. Individuals who attempted to open hospitals in the community didn’t last because there are no supporting facilities like electricity and good water. And the worst part of it, there is no access road to the community. If you are a doctor operating a hospital here, will you be trekking for over seven kilometres to go outside the community to procure drugs, especially during the rainy season? That’s our story. That’s our plight, my son.
“When I was a little boy, I worked on the road about 65 years ago. I didn’t expect that I would leave this world without that road being constructed. Vehicles didn’t ply the road then and my community tried very hard to even put the road to the state it is now. We laid the foundation of the road. We shared the work on the road village by village. I thought that by now the government would have come to our rescue and construct the road, but we are still suffering.
“You hear anything about government only when elections are close. They will come and promise heaven and earth, thereafter you won’t see them again until the next four years, during another election. The government of Ebonyi State has rejected and abandoned us but we don’t know what our offence is.”
He grieved over the persistent invasion of the community by herdsmen explaining that the attackers usually escaped because there was no government presence or supporting infrastructure, there.
“We don’t have GSM network coverage here in the community. So, before you hear about attack or kidnap incident, the attackers had gone with their victims,” the old man lamented.
Saturday Sun could not confirm the claim in the community that the road had been captured severally over the years for construction by the federal government under the constituency projects of their previous representatives at the National Assembly, and contractors, after being paid, abandoned the project.
