Yenagoa and Abuja residents appeal for help as bad roads and a collapsed bridge disrupt daily life
- Residents of Yenagoa and Abuja are asking government to fix roads and a bridge they say have made movement and business hard.
- In Yenagoa, traders and residents say flooding and bad roads raise transport costs and damage belongings.
- In Abuja's Dogo Gada, residents are contributing ₦35,000 per compound to rebuild a collapsed bridge.
Residents in two parts of the country are making the same appeal to government: come and fix our roads. In Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, traders and residents say bad internal roads and flooding are disrupting their daily lives and businesses. In Dogo Gada, a community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, residents say the collapse of their only bridge has made life and livelihoods hard.
Yenagoa: flooding, trekking and damaged belongings
In Yenagoa, the complaints centre on Dim Rose Street in Biogbolo and the road from the Swali Market roundabout towards the flyover. Residents say the roads become especially difficult during rainfall.
A Dim Rose Street resident, Big Luck, said the community had complained repeatedly without meaningful intervention. He said commercial tricycle operators sometimes refuse to enter the area because of the road's condition, leaving residents to trek.
"In other places, commercial tricycle operators may charge ₦200 for a trip. However, because of the bad condition of the road in Dim Rose Street, some operators avoid carrying passengers into the area," he said.
Stephen Chukwu, who runs a laundry shop on the street, said he had operated there for about two years and had complained several times without improvement. He said parts of the area flood when it rains, making movement difficult.
In Swali, trader Henry Akujiobi said he had recorded videos showing the damage. He said flooding had damaged people's belongings, including a woman's iPhone that stopped working after a keke ride on the bad road. Residents contributed money to help her, he said.
Another trader, Glory Julius, said the road had been a concern for nearly two years, and that traders offering beauty and hair services had also been affected.
Abuja: a collapsed bridge and a community levy
In Dogo Gada, also called Lokogoma Village, residents say the only bridge linking them to the rest of the FCT has collapsed. On September 14, the village head, Irimiya Kanpani, wrote to the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) asking for urgent intervention on the bridge and the township road. The letter was acknowledged the same day, according to The Sun.
Landlord Emeka Chrysostom said residents have contributed money each year to repair the bridge, but the total collapse is beyond their means. He said three of his self-contained apartments are vacant because would-be tenants reject the area over the roads, forcing him to cut the rent.
Residents have now set a levy of ₦35,000 per compound, due by the end of October. Louis Chuka, who chairs the bridge construction committee, said on the community's WhatsApp platform that those who fail to pay by the deadline would be charged ₦50,000 and have their light disconnected.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said repairing the bridge is not its mandate, and that the cost is beyond its capacity. The FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it had assessed the bridge and submitted a report to the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, but could not give a timeline for repairs.
What happens next
For Yenagoa residents, the demand is for the state government to repair the roads and address flooding. In Dogo Gada, residents wait to see whether the FCT minister acts on the assessment report, while the community's levy deadline approaches.
