Dr Isaac Akpoveta
* indigenes cry out
By John Egie
Residents and property owners at the Ekiugbo-Ughelli Old Road Axis of Odovie village are facing difficulty in accessing their homes, at risk of driving their cars and face real threat to life in cases of call to response to mobilisation for emergencies in health care delivery .
The situation is caused by the dumping of mounds of loose sand on the road by tippers excavating sharp sand from a beach in a bushside of the road.
The beach is said to be owned by the Director General of Delta State Contributory Health Commission, Dr Isaac Akpoveta, and the ugly situation is one of the environmental impact of the recklessness of the tipper drivers transporting the excavated sharp sand from the beach out of Odovie village for marketing.
From the beachside route curvature up to the point of intersection with the Ofuoma-Isiokolo Road in Odovie, mounds of loose sand render the road impassable by foot, bicycle, motorcycle or cars apart from articulated trucks.
The worrying situation has lingered for over a year and public outcry drew Spy News attention to the community.
One of the community indigenes, Chief Lord Mayor Uduovie who spoke to this reporter during the on-the- spot assessment of the environmental impact of the sand dredging economic activity, confirmed the situation on ground and raised a hue about the pains and sufferings the affected residents have been going through for the past one year.
“The sand on the road damaged my car, we have been cut off from free access in and out to our houses, nobody drives in and nobody drives out apart from the trucks transporting the sand away. We are all forced to trek on the loose sand and the way is long. It has been so for the past one year” he complained .
He appealed to Dr Isaac Akpoveta to ammeliorate the suffering of the people by spreading a handful of laterite to mix up with the mounds of loose sand to make the road firm and passable for users.
President General of the community, Comrade Benjamin Idoghor also confirmed the situation on ground lamenting the distress suffered by the indigenes.
He said the issue has been on for a year and the community leadership met with Dr Isaac Akpoveta late last year and confronted him with the problem.
“We met him, his mother is from this village, it is true he owns the beach. During our discussion he owned up to the challenge and promised to work on the road this new year. He assured of attracting other infrastructure development to the community but asked for time. We believe he will act and do something as promised. The year has just begun, this is January and it is still early, we will wait.
“Nobody is happy with the state of the road, it is our concern but we have to wait for a while to let him fulfill his promise” Idoghor said.
Effort to reach Dr Isaac Akpoveta for his comment failed as he declined to take calls on his telephone line at press time.
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