Residents protest as Imo community’s livelihoods destroyed amid road split

The socio-economic livelihood of the people of Nguru Umuaro Community, in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State, has been affected adversely by the deplorable state of their major road.

The road, which links the community to Umuneke, their council headquarters, and Etche LGA (Rivers State) is no longer motorable, making it impossible for farmers from the community to transport their wares to the markets, thereby robbing the people of their main source of income.

At a protest held on Thursday to draw attention to the horrible condition of the road, especially the Umuewere Village section, the people of Nguru Umuaro lamented that the deplorable state of the road had rendered them poor and hungry, with some of their farmers dying out of heartbreak.

They appealed to the Imo State government to quickly come to their aid by commencing the rehabilitation of the road to alleviate their economic hardship and avoid further loss of lives of their helpless farmers.

Speaking during the protest, Peter Okereafor, president-general of Nguru Umuaro Development Union, said the people of the community were not happy over the bad state of the road as it had affected them in many aspects.

“We’re here because we’re not happy with the state of the road. You can see that this road is very deplorable. Our people cannot go to the farm. Our people cannot go to the market. Our children cannot go to school. This road has affected the livelihood of our people. We’re appealing to the government to please, as a matter of urgency, come and fix this road. This is the road leading to the (Ngor Okpala) local government headquarters,” he said.

Ngozi Ikea, president-general of Nguru Umuaro Women, said the bad state of the road had caused their people a lot of pain and bodily injuries.

She warned that if the road was not fixed, their women would not vote in the forthcoming election.

“We have suffered a lot with bad road. With this bad road, our women cannot go to their farms. When they carry their wares to go to the market, they will be falling inside water. Enough is enough. If they don’t do this road, the women would not vote,” she said.

Ikechukwu Okere, youth president of Nguru Umuaro Community, lamented that some of their people could no longer access their homes because of the bad road.

“We no longer want promises. We’re tired of promises. We want action this time around,” he said.

Jude Nkwocha, coordinator of the protest, had earlier, in a statement, explained that the essence of the protest was to draw the attention of government to the terrible condition of the Ulakwo-Nguru Umuaro-Umuneke-Etche Road.