….Traumatised Awka Residents Beg Soludo
 By Michael Nnebife
The residents of Kamali Layout in Awka, the Anambra State Capital, have appealed to the State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to build the access road to the Layout which borders Ngozika Housing Estate Phase II, Dubia and Rockland Estates, as well as a section of Okpuno Community, to enable them to have ease of access to their various homes.
The residents made the appeal last Wednesday, while having a chat with our reporters who visited the road after a viral video on social media showing some of the residents and hired labourers engaging in grass clearing and other palliative work on the road in a bid to make it passable.
Some of them, including Dr Ifeoma Ajuba; Mr Osita Israel Chinedu; among others, who told Fides that the residents of Kamali Layout dreaded the Rainy Season, as a result of its bad road, narrated the ordeal they passed through every Rainy Season.
‘This road is considered one of the worst roads around Awka Metropolis. Since 2018 when I came in, it has been the greatest challenge facing me and so many other persons living here.
‘The road is not constructed at all; it is the same as saying we don’t have any road to access our homes,’ Dr Ajuba said, noting that the topography of the area made the road very bad in the Rainy Season, such that driving or walking there was very difficult.
‘If you try to drive, the car will sink. Even the commercial tricyclists don’t accept any offer to drive us in, for the fear of being trapped in mud.
‘Going out or coming in from work or market every Rainy Season is a serious nightmare to us. We trek and keep suffering since 2018; I have a car, but most times I don’t go out in it.
‘Will I talk about my good footwear? I leave my house putting on slippers. When I get outside (the asphalted road leading to Goodwill Junction), I begin to wash my legs before I can wear my shoes,’ Dr Ajuba lamented.
On the measures to ensure that the road is motorable, Ajuba said that she, including some of her neighbours, had been doing palliative work on the road through self-help since 2018.
‘We were compelled to be doing clearing work on the road, using hired labourers. On my own, I try to do some remedial work on the road, buying stones, condemned blocks and coal tar and dumping them on some very bad and impassable portions.
‘I have been doing these, but every year the road keeps getting worse. But this year, we decided to do something that may be permanent, but funding remains another challenge.
‘Though, on my own, I decided to take the bull by the horns through my personal savings. We have done concrete work on some of the portions that are almost impassable.
‘Some other residents are also contributing at the level that they could, but we really need help,’ Ajuba said.
She recalled that in 2018, she bought 12 trips of condemned coal tar, and only this month, she had put in more than two million Naira, among others, to ensure the road was passable.
‘On the average estimate, we have spent two million Naira on the road within the last two, three weeks.
‘This doesn’t include the ones we had done in the years past. For instance, in 2018, I bought more than 12 trips of condemned coal tar and used them here for us to have a road.
‘This is not included in the two million and above I spent just within the last two, three weeks,’ she said, adding that she had bought more than 150 bags of cement.
She however commended Governor Chukwuma Soludo, saying he had done well in road infrastructure across the state.
‘I appreciate Mr Governor for the good work he is doing; indeed, he is doing well.
‘I have been living in Anambra State all my life; I can confidently testify that a lot of positive changes have occurred within these three years of his administration, especially in terms of road infrastructural development.
‘Because of the nature of my work, I move around Anambra State. So, I can tell you that there is quite a difference between Anambra before he came onboard and the Anambra we have now.
‘I’m aware that he has a lot of work with little resources to work with, but I’m pleading. Please, let him remember Kamali, and the people living in Kamali, to help us have an access road to our homes,’ Dr Ajuba, her neighbours, Mr Chinedu, and others who did not want their names to appear in print, appealed.
‘We need a motorable road; road is the major problem facing us, his workers, and his children living here in Kamali,’ they said.
