Besides the visit by the Transition Committee Chairman of Ogbaru, Hon. Paschal Aniegbuna, to access the extent of damage, no other government official came from Awka to examine the crash site
* Thousands trapped, as only access road collapses at two different points
By Moses Okorie
365Daily – Trouble appears to be mounting for the already traumatised people of Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State as the bridge linking seven communities and several camps in the area has collapsed.
Following the incident, hundreds of thousands of persons already marooned by this year’s flooding have been effectively cut off from their kith and kin.
The affected communities include Umunankwo, Mputu, Ogwuaniocha, Ossomala, Obeagwe, Akili Ogidi and Ogwuikpele.
According to eye-witnesses, the bridge which had been wobbling since last Friday’s boat accident that claimed no fewer than 20 lives, finally caved in the morning of Wednesday, October 12, 2022.
An outboard engine boat conveying about 85 passengers, mainly traders, to the nearby Nkwo Ogbakuba market had suffered engine failure soon after take-off at Umunankwo, leading to a crash against the barriers of the bridge.
Said an indigene of the area: “Besides the visit by the Transition Committee Chairman of Ogbaru, Hon. Paschal Aniegbuna, to access the extent of damage, no other government official came from Awka to examine the crash site.
“In fact, we have long been cut off, without anyone making any appreciable effort to assuage our pains. This is the only road that connects all communities in Ogbaru, but surprisingly it cut into two somewhere around Ofia Umuoga, between Ogbakuba and Umunankwo about two weeks ago, only for our governor (Professor Charles Soludo), to visit Ogbaru and stopped at Odekpe, very far from the site of the collapse,” the apparently distraught indigene lamented.
With the latest incident, persons from the affected communities are now left with water transportation as the only means of moving around – with the attendant risks of accidents, given the huge tidal waves of the flood.
Commenting on the latest development, a former member of the House of Representatives who represented Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, reiterated his earlier calls on both the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, to redouble efforts in providing succour for the people of Ogbaru.
“In fact, the string of calamities currently being experienced by my people of Ogbaru goes beyond palliatives and relief materials by SEMA and NEMA. We are in dire straits and the Anambra State Government must step in and declare an emergency. We cannot have as much as seven communities and several camps cut off and still pretend as though the situation is still normal. Gov. Soludo and the Anambra State Government must put boots on ground and provide succour to the people of Ogbaru,” Hon. Ogene, who is the Labour Party 2023 candidate for Ogbaru Federal Constituency, said.