BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
It was respite for the people of Ogboji community in Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and other adjoining communities after the state government constructed a modern concrete bridge for them.
The new bridge, said to have been built by the immediate past governor of the state, David Umahi, replaced an ancient makeshift bamboo bridge, which the people had been using for a very long time to connect to other communities.
According to findings by The Point, residents had been living in severe fear as the bamboo platform continued to cause deaths of passersby, especially during raining seasons.
Indigenes had lamented that the old bridge had posed serious danger to lives and had hindered their businesses, and educational pursuits, among others.
A resident of the community, Ezekiel Nwafor, told a bitter story of how he lost his wife and a seven-month-old baby boy while walking on the bamboo bridge popularly known as Akadoro bridge.
In an emotion-laden voice, Nwafor said his wife, who was backing his baby, slipped from the makeshift bridge, fell into the river and drowned before help could come their way.
He said, “I thank God Almighty and the immediate past governor, David Umahi, for constructing this bridge to prevent further deaths. I lost my wife and baby boy on this 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 but unknown to me, there was a heavy rainfall in the neighbouring village at that time.
“Whenever it rained, water level would rise with an intense wave that often times swept the bamboo bridge away and sometimes made 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.”
“I thank former Governor Umahi for stopping avoidable deaths through the construction of this bridge,” he added.
The woman leader in the community, Chinyere Nwite-Alegu, expressed joy at the new bridge and also thanked the former governor.
Listing other challenges confronting the community over which she sought the attention of the new administration in the state, Nwite-Alegu said the community lacked electricity supply, standard hospital and other basic public amenities and called on the new governor, Francis Nwifuru, to assist in tackling the community needs.
Also speaking, Ezza North Local Government Council Chairman, Moses Nome, eulogised the former governor for attending to the needs of his people.
He said, “The Akadoro bamboo bridge has been of very serious impediment to the economic and educational growth of our community before the commencement of its construction by former governor David Umahi. That bridge has taken so many lives from the community. Most times, the bamboo had broken while people were walking on them and they fell into the river and got drowned.
“The Ogboji community and their neighbours suffered same fate until the immediate past governor was campaigning in 2015 and promised to stop the incessant deaths. He didn’t just construct the bridge, he built a three kilometer road in the community. That is the major road linking Ezza North people, Ezzaegu in Ishielu LGA to Isu, Agba, Nkomoro, Iyere, and Ekka communities.”
