They maintained that for five years, there had not been electricity supply to the town. They regretted that the community was not only denied electricity but lacked potable water. Till now, there is no access road linking the village to other adjoining towns. The Ubulu-uku link road where Pa Paul Oji’s house is situated had been totally cut off by erosion. The situation was so bad that visitors who attended the celebration had to abandon their vehicles as far away as two kilometers from the venue of the event. Even a walk to the place was an ordeal. One of the visitors said it was like walking through the valley of the shadow of death. The road was so tortuous that only the courageous dared to make it to the anniversary arena. At the moment, some prominent members of the community have been lamenting the state of the roads in the area, calling on Delta State Government and other relevant agencies to intervene. Speaking on the state of Ubulu-uku-Onitcha-Ugbo-Abuja link road in particular, a scholar and don, Prof. Augustine Ofuani who attended the burial anniversary of Pa Oji fumed: “Don’t you have community leaders who can bring this development to the attention of government? I am surprised that in an oil-rich state like Delta, this kind of erosion-menace is going on. I could only trek this far all because of the respect I have for late Pa Oji.” Speaking to our correspondent in an emotion-laden voice, a former councilor representing Ward 4, Aniocha South, Chukwuka Eziashi, said: “When I was a councilor representing Ward 4 where the Ubulu-uku-Onitcha Ugbo Abuja link road passes through, we were doing what we called palliative measure just to secure this road from erosion. That was a temporal measure. We used to sand-fill the road but that could only be done during dry season. Once the raining season came, everything was washed away. The road would be passable from October to January, but once the rain begins, the floodwater would flush away the whole thing. “As it is now, the problem is beyond what the local government can handle. It cannot do anything as it is now. We need both the state and federal governments’ intervention. This is where the ecological fund ought to be utilised because the road in question is very important to all and sundry. “This is a road that links Edo State and the Northern part of the country. It links Onicha-Ugbo, Ewohimi, Auchi and continues to Abuja. It also links Onicha South Local Government to Oniocha-North and Oshimili local governments. You can see how important the road is. “Our people are predominantly farmers and we have many food crops that are wasting away in the farms because there is no access road to convey the crops to the market. We have economic trees that generate money and we believe that the economic life of the people will largely improve if this road is repaired. My people are a hard working lot, but we are getting discouraged from farming because after working in the farms, it would be a waste of energy, time and resources if they can’t get access road to transport the produce to the markets. “The erosion challenge apart, we are unhappy that Ubulu-uku community has been so badly marginalised by past governments. In the past 16 years, there was no pipe borne water in this community. The last time we had pipe borne water was during the military administration. In fact, in the past five years, there has been no electricity to our area, yet we voted enmasse for the two, past civilian administrations. “But we can only hope that in this present administration of Dr. Arthur Okowa, something positive will be done about our roads and power challenge. Okowa is Anioma; he has appointed Prof. Sylvester Monye as his Special Adviser on Monitoring. Incidentally, the road in question links Prof. Monye’s civic centre and his hometown, Onitcha-Ugbo. Even the new Group Managing Director (GMD) NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu, is from the same town with Monye. The road we are talking about passes in front of Kachukwu’s house. I think these three persons will be able to attract federal government presence to this place. “Before now, we had written to the past administrations complaining about our plight, but none of them responded to our challenges.” Meanwhile, a community leader, Mr. Paul Emordi, one of the people who has been mobilising youths for community development, has raised the alarm that if nothing drastic was done soon about the road, the Ubulu-uku people might be cut off from other towns and communities around them. “In my capacity as a youth leader, I have done my level best by mobilising the youths to assist in various community development activities. We are the ones who fix these access roads. But now, it is beyond us. As soon as we finish sand-filling these roads, and there is rainfall, the rampaging floods will easily sweep everything away. “My anger is that the government is always talking about self employment. Many of us do not even want government jobs because we want to be self-employed. However, let there be an enabling environment for us to thrive. Some of us are welders, electricians, mechanics and professional farmers. But where is the road to convey our farm produce to the market? Where is the road to do our transport business? Where is the electricity to operate our barbing salons and do our welding works? We are in a fix and that is why some hardworking youths are veering into vices like kidnapping, armed robbery and advance fee fraud. “Our food crops are wasting in the farms. You can see how dilapidated the road is. It takes courage to pass through this road. As it is said, it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a vehicle to pass through these roads. “I am equally joining others in appealing to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and President Muhammadu Buhari to do something urgent about our roads,” he said. In the same vein, Madam Josephine, the 81-year-old widow of Pa Oji, has also sent an appeal message to Buhari and Okowa over the state of the roads in the community. “It was some people who carried me on their shoulders to this place before I could come for today’s church service in memory of my husband. Without that, I couldn’t have been able to pass through this road. My children and their visitors parked their cars far away from the compound because the roads are impassable. “I am begging Governor Okowa and President Buhari to come to our aid. I can’t go out from my compound because erosion is raving every part of the town.” Similarly, an Ubulu-uku resident, Charles Adim Oji, has also cried out over erosion menace in the community. “This is a road that was not only motorable in the past but very smooth, even for bicycle riding. But now, things have changed. Now, erosion has reduced us to monkeys as we use ladders before we can climb in and out of our homes. We are appealing to the government to assist us.”
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