Residents lament deplorable Kutara-Madani road
Residents of Kutara in Gurdi ward of Abaji Area Council in the FCT have expressed concern over the deplorable state of the road linking the village to Madani.
They said the road, which links various communities up to Yaba, had been causing hardship to them especially farmers who transport their farm produce to Abaji market.
The Madaki of Kutara, Samuel Dangana, who spoke to Aso Chronicle, said lack of access road had been one of the major challenges facing residents of the community and other neighbouring villages in the area.
He said the deplorable state of the road was affecting local farmers the most as they find it difficult to transport their farm produce to the market at Abaji or Kwali.
He noted that the road, which also leads to Yaba village, was graded about six years ago, but that some portions had been washed away by erosion while most of the culverts which were built some years back have also collapsed.
He said residents suffer most during the rainy season because of the streams along the road, adding that motorcycles hardly crossed the streams whenever there was heavy down pour.
He said the village chief always mobilised elders and youths during the dry season to repair some bad portions of the road before farmers could move their farm produce to the market.
The madaki said some residents were sometimes forced to do a detour through the Kpango-Mayaki road in Niger State, before they could arrive Kwali market.
“In fact, virtually all our people here in this village, including the Tiv farmers, have difficulty getting out of the village because of the state of the road.
Now, as we are about to enter the rainy season, we are beginning to be worried because when rain sets in fully, people cannot travel out of this village any more as all the streams along the road will be filled up while erosion will degrade the road further,” he said.
He also complained about lack of a clinic at the village, saying patients always travelled to Yaba or neighbouring Bari-Bari village to seek for medical care.
Dangana said his people only survived with the grace of God during rainy season, saying they mostly depended on traditional herbal medicine when the road became impassable during the rainy season.
He also said the community lacked access to potable water, a situation he added had caused untold hardship to his people especially during the dry season.
He said the only source of water at the village was River Gurara, which he said posed health risk to their lives.
“There was a borehole with an overhead tank which was provided by the MDGs about seven years ago, but it broke down just a week after it was commissioned. I came to discover that some thieves came at night and removed the submersible pump,” he said.
The madaki said he had complained severally to successive administrations of the council on the need to repair the borehole, but nothing has been done about it.
He, therefore, appealed to the authorities of the council to come to their aid by constructing culverts across streams on the road, and for the rehabilitation of the broken down borehole at the village.
He also requested the council chairman to construct a clinic at the community to ease the suffering of residents.
Also, residents of Kwakwa community of the council had decried lack of pipeborne water in the village.
The village chief of community, Dauda Jatau, stated the