Abuja farming community begs Wike for access road, basic amenities

The Kungaboku rural community in the Bwari Area Council has appealed to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for the construction of its access road and the provision of potable water and other basic amenities.

Residents of the predominantly farming community made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

They urged the minister and other relevant bodies to prevent them from being completely cut off from the territory because of the bad state of the access road to the community.

Zephaniah Moses, the community youth leader, said the rains had washed off the only road leading to the community, making it very difficult for people to come in and go out.

“When heavy rains fall, the river across the road will be filled up. We will have to wait for at least, five hours, for the water to go down before anyone can go out or come into the community

“What we need is a bridge across the river. The palliative measures we have done on the road, through communal efforts have been washed off with the coming of the rains,” he said.

Mr Moses also appealed for the provision of potable water and the rehabilitation of the only LEA Primary School in the community. He said the roofs of two of the blocks of classrooms had been blown off by a storm.

“Whenever it rains during school hours, the pupils will have to cram in the few classrooms covered with roofs for the rain to subside.

The roof of a block of classrooms in LEA Primary School, Kungaboku, FCT, was blown off by the storm.

“The school also needs perimeter fencing to protect the pupils and their teachers from attack,” he said.

Rafiu Akintoye, a resident and farmer who said he has lived in Kungaboku for 15 years, described the community as peaceful and the indigenes accommodating.

On the poor state of the road, Mr Akintoye recalled an incident when the river across it washed away a car trying to go out of the community when it was raining.

According to him, it took the intervention of able-bodied young men in the community to rescue the occupants of the vehicle down the river.

He said before the community carried out the palliative maintenance on the road, there were times they would have to remain in the community for two days whenever there was a downpour.

Mr Akintoye said that the primary healthcare centre in the community is also in dire need of rehabilitation, health workers and drugs.

Primary Healthcare Centre, Kungaboku, Bwari Area Council, FCT

According to him, the health care centre built by the government and equipped by the Rotary Club many years back is in a sorry state at the moment.

He said health workers are not readily available, especially at night, putting sick residents at risk and there are no drugs to be dispensed for patients.

Male Ward of Primary Healthcare Centre, Kungaboku, FCT

A poultry farmer in the community, Anna Jonah,, narrated how the bad access road has negatively affected her business.

“Coming in and going out of this community is the major challenge, especially for farmers who are dominant here.

“You have to trek a long distance before you can get “okada or keke” (commercial motorcycle or tricycle), many of them are not willing to come here.

“On Saturday, I paid N5,000 to a “keke” man who brought in my chicken feed, a distance of just 10 minutes. The fare will not have been up to that if the road is good.

“People that come in here, to buy the birds also complain about the bad road and use the opportunity to underprice our birds,” she said.

She appealed to the minister, the Bwari Area Council and other relevant bodies to come to their aid in fixing the road for ease of doing their business.

Omerigwe Bartholomew, who did his national youth service programme on a farm in Kungaboku some years back, has remained in the village and is doing his own farming.

He said some of the big farms in the village are being leased out by the owners because of poor infrastructure and an unfavourable business environment.

“I am into poultry, livestock and crop production. Right now, I am coming from my cassava farm

“I choose to remain in this village after my youth service because the villagers are peaceful and accommodating.

“We have not recorded clashes between farmers and herders here because we all live peacefully, and when there is a misunderstanding, the community head resolves it amicably,” he said.

Mr Bartholomew appealed to the FCT administration to fix the infrastructure in Kungaboku village, particularly the access road, healthcare facility and potable water.

He also urged agricultural agencies to visit the village for possible establishment of farm clusters.

He assured that such development would boost agricultural production in the area and attract many youths to site more farm projects in the area.

(NAN)