The deteriorating condition of their roads has prompted residents of Obibiezena, Naze, and Agbala communities in Imo State’s Owerri North Local Government Area to appeal to the state and federal governments for assistance. They lament the condition of the roads has halted the socioeconomic development of the region.

The community members who spoke with OHAFIATV News claimed that the only sin they committed was to give the federal government unfettered use of their ancestral lands to build and create the Anambra, Imo River Basin Development Authority, or AIRBDA.

“The roads which connect the federal establishment are death traps, and we don’t know when the Federal establishment and Imo State Government will remember us in this town,” said Fabian Ayuba, a resident of Umuogida Emeke Obibiezena Community. The three communities are connected to numerous villages by way of this busy route.

In seven days, he said, the neighborhood’s women and young people will stage a public protest to voice their discontent about the terrible condition of the road.

He decried the poor condition of the roads and the difficulties experienced by both locals and others who came to the area for various reasons.

Ekwebelam Prince from the community of Obibiezena, Ogunka Christopher from the community of Agbala, and Maduagwu Uche from the community of Naze all lamented the state of affairs in their remarks, pointing out that the federal establishment owes the host communities a social contract that includes at the very least grading the roads in these communities.

They declared, “The current management of AIRBDA is the worst and most insensitive this agency has had since its foundation. It is managed by the Managing Director, Engr Gerald Osuagwu.

“The head of this Federal Establishment takes great joy in treating the needs of these localities’ residents in terms of welfare and development with unbearable arrogance and contempt.

“The residents of these communities are no longer content because it is now intolerable to go from one location to another in their villages. The kids and their mothers are prepared to say enough is enough when faced with the current impassable conditions of their death-trap roadways.