SaharaReporters during a visit to the area observed that the road was awarded by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) since 2012 but has been abandoned, leaving residents at the mercy of floods which also cut off movements and claim lives annually. 

Residents of Chikakore community in Biyzahin, Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have performed the groundbreaking for the construction of a bridge on the road to prevent perennial flooding in the area.  

The bridge construction project in the area, being sponsored by residents known as the "winning women" was commissioned on Wednesday to stop the excessive flood disaster which recently claimed the lives of more than eight persons. 

SaharaReporters during a visit to the area observed that the road was awarded by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) since 2012 but has been abandoned, leaving residents at the mercy of floods which also cut off movements and claim lives annually. 

Speaking at the occasion, the head of the women, Barrister Martha Obi, said the community decided to take up the bridge construction to tackle the menace of flooding and loss of lives experienced every raining season.

She said, "If you watch the clip of the motorcyclist swept away by the flood, you would see that it was terrible. Before our very eyes, the man died in this area. After that incident, knowing fully well that this is the major road into this community and our children pass this road and our husbands too, we said that if we kept quiet, nothing would happen.

"It was this thought that brought us together to begin this project. We are citizens of Nigeria and we have civil duties and we cannot keep waiting for the government. The women as mothers and wives decided to confront this challenge and that was why we stood up and collected money from people plying the roads daily.

"At the end of the day, we are here today to out an end to this flood and we said we would put a bridge here that can take us for at least the next 50 years and stop the menace of flooding.

"We got an engineer and asked him to tell us what would cost us and he gave us a restructuring plan and now this project ha commenced. By the time the flooding of 2024 comes, it will have a path to go."

Also, the Chairman of the Chikakore community and landlords association, Colonel Daniel Godsent (retd.), a clergy, narrated how the flooding had claimed at least eight lives in the recent past.

Godsent said, "We called on the contractor and told him, send your engineers to come and supervise. We called the Director, Satellite Town Development Agency and others that we want to do self-help.

"This road has been unusable. During the last rainy season, three people were swept away on this road. Last year, six people were swept away. If nothing is done, during this rainy season, it could be me (that could be swept away). So this is why we came together and mobilised for this project to take off and be successful." 

SaharaReporters had reported in January how the Chikakore community went to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike''s office to protest the abandonment of the access road project contract fully awarded and paid for over a decade ago to Parsons Science Engineering Company Limited without executing the work.

The Community had made this known through a protest letter submitted to the Permanent Secretary to the FCT, Mr Udo Samuel Atang for onward delivery to the Honorable Minister of FCT, Wike. 

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