expdonaloaded pic:Collapsed bridge cuts off imo communities

The people of  Umualum and Umuoma autonomous communities in Nekede, Owerri-West Local Government Area of Imo State, are not happy in this season.
They watch politicians meander into their towns to solicit votes even when their over 50,000 natives have been locked in because of the collapsed Otamiri River Bridge linking them to other communities.

Both communities have large population and a large number of students of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, living in their midst.
Therefore, the importance of a bridge that connects them with the other communities cannot be over emphasised even as both towns are predominantly agrarian communities as most of their people farm around the Otamiri River.
So, with the collapse of the popular Otamiri River Bridge, the natives have been left in a quandary, which make their anger to rise up each time the politicians come to their towns.
Therefore, as the elections approach, the people of the two towns of Umualum and Umuoma have cried out to the state and federal governments to come to their aid and rehabilitate the aged bridge that collapsed because of years of neglect, saying that it has not only restricted their movement, but has also brought untold economic hardship to them.
The traditional ruler of Umuoma Autonomous Community, Eze Morrison Eke, lamenting said that the collapsed bridge has cut off his community from other neighbouring communities and also kept them far away from the capital city of Owerri, which normally should take less than 10 minutes, but now takes his people more than an hour to go to.
“Since the wood and steel used in building it are now feeble and already collapsed, it takes the brave and courageous with diligence to trek across the bridge in order not to fall into the river. So, to avoid falling into the river people simply avoid it and would rather go through a longer distance in other to get to the neighbouring community which is Umualum,” the monarch lamented.
According to him, “when the bridge was functional many years ago our community was a beehive of economic activities because transportation on car, buses, tricycle and motorcycles were all easy then, but now it is not impossible”.
The traditional ruler, therefore, pleaded with the appropriate authorities to help his people because the deplorable state of the road was affecting communication with other neighbouring communities.
However, a new bridge being constructed by the Federal Government seems to have been abandoned, as work has stopped on it.
But the lawmaker, representing Owerri-West Constituency in the House of Assembly, Mr. Innocent Eke, said that the house had made some efforts to alleviate the plights of the people.
Eke added that since it was under Ecological Fund project that requires counterpart funding, he was aware that the state government had paid its part and believes that in no time the Federal Government would commence work on the bridge again.