BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
The agony of death and recurrent losses of property looms large on the minds of elders in Okoroko Umuezeoka community in Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, as they watch their young ones die in their prime.
The elders, recounting the tragic death of their younger ones in the twilight of their (elders’) lives bleed from within. For them, the loss of a child comes with extreme sorrow that is too excruciating to bear. Yet, they watch helplessly and groan in silence as they wish their agonies away.
In close succession, the Okoroko Umuezeoka community, lose a young folk to the cold grip of death. The notorious makeshift bridge on the outskirts of the village is the death trap where the hopes of the village are buried with their valuables cascaded into the deep river without a rescue.
The inhabitants say that the makeshift bridge is bad. However, the wait for the giver of hope to fix a better bridge has remained endless and a mere illusion. As a result, the villagers keep managing, and they keep losing their lives and property to the unyielding bridge beneath which Nramura River flows.
The people say that as a result of the bad bridge, no vehicle can move in and out of the community. The makeshift bridge which they built some years ago cannot withstand the weight of a car and can hardly bear the weight of a human being anymore.
When The Point correspondent visited the community, the residents described the makeshift bridge as a death-trap, saying that several people had lost their lives while attempting to cross the bridge to the other side. They narrated how flood washed the makeshift bridge away whenever there was a torrential rainfall.
Moses Nwafor, a resident of the community said that no road had ever been constructed in the community.
Reliving a bitter experience, Nwafor said that he lost his wife and her seven months old baby boy at the bamboo bridge.
In an emotion-laden voice, Nwafor said that his wife, who was backing his baby, slipped from the makeshift bridge and fell into the river. The mother and her baby drowned.
“I lost my wife and baby boy on this bridge (pointing to the bridge). In the year 2010, my wife carried her baby while visiting her sick mother at Onueke, a neighbouring village. We agreed that she would stay for four market days, but at the expiration of the period, my wife didn’t return. I thought that something happened and she decided to extend her stay unknown to me that there was a heavy rainfall in the neighbouring village at the time.
“Whenever it rains, water level would rise with an intense wave that oftentimes sweeps the bamboo bridge away and sometimes makes it become slippery. While searching for my wife and baby, we saw some of her belongings at the river bank which confirmed that they got drowned there,” he said.
The woman leader in the community, Chinyere Nwite-Alegu, also corroborated the claim that several lives had been lost at the bridge. She added that the community lacked electricity supply and other basic public amenities.
Nwite-Alegu appealed to the state government to help in constructing a bridge in order to open the community to development and for their children to get formal education.
“I urge that a modern bridge be constructed across Nramura river to reduce the difficulties being experienced by our people during rainy season.
We have lost so many people as a result of the deplorable condition of the makeshift bridge. Imagine, in this 21st century, there is still no electricity supply in Okoroko Umuezeoka community. You and I know that non-availability of basic social amenities brings about high rate of crimes, rural-urban migration, over dependency among others.
“When there is flood, we don’t go to the market to sell our farm produces and in the process, we lose the perishables. Rural roads are needed to help us transport our farm produces to the market.
There is need for provision of amenities for rapid development and to boost economy of our community,” she said.
The Point also gathered that pupils in the community risk their lives by crossing the bridge on their way to school in the neighboring community. Some of the pupils said that they sometimes missed examinations because of the poor state of the makeshift bridge.
A pupil, Josephine Nwoba, said that she missed three subjects during the last examination as the bridge was flooded. According to her, whenever it rains, the bridge becomes impassable; hence most of the pupils would not attend school as there is no school in the community.
“Whenever it rains heavily, there would be flood. At such a time, we don’t go to school because the bamboo bridge would have become slippery.
Last year, my brother, Chigozie, missed his common entrance examinations because water had overflowed the bamboo bridge and there was no alternate route to our school. There is no school in our village, so we have to cross the Nramura river on our way to school.
“During last term examinations, myself and my colleagues from the village missed three subjects because of lack of good bridge across the river. I beg people of good will and government to assist us. Apart from reconstructing the bridge, we also need schools in our village so that we would be able to go to school to school whether it rains or not.
Another pupil, Chinedu Nwuzor, who said that he would like to be a medical doctor, lamented the death of his father, Alo Nwuzor, while trying to cross the bridge with his motorbike during the raining season sometimes in 2019.
Young Nwuzor recalled that there was heavy rain that resulted in flooding on the faithful day. His father drowned in the river on his way from work, at night.
The young boy said, “Sometimes, if we are lucky enough to pass and go to school, we may not be able to return if it rains heavily in the afternoon. Sometimes last year, I spent four days at my school mate’s house because of flood. So, during raining seasons, we always go to school with extra clothes to change in case we are not able to return that day. At times, it may not even rain here, but it may still rain there.
“I lost my father, a commercial motorcyclist, at the bamboo bridge. My father, while returning home from work, fell into the river after it rained. We found out that he was drowned after three days when we found his bike in the water. So, after a search was conducted by some villagers, his dead body was found, almost decaying. I plead that a modern bridge be constructed at the river. Our fathers went through so much stress to construct the one that we are using.”
Meanwhile, the state government has assured the people of its readiness to construct a bridge to the community.
In an interview, the Commissioner for Works and Transport in the state, Ogbonnaya Abara, said that government would do all within its reach to construct a modern bridge in the community in a bid to make life easy for the people.
“The bridge is among the next batch of bridges to be constructed by the state government. We have started that of Odenligbo village and a few others around. But, provision of social amenities should not be left in the hands of government alone,” the commissioner stated.
