Abuja chief tours communities, laments bad roads, water scarcity

The newly installed Etsu of Wako in Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Abdullaziz Ibrahim Usman, on Saturday led some members of his cabinet on tour of rural communities in his chiefdom.

Alhaji Usman, while speaking with Aso Chronicle at the end of the tour, identified lack of access roads, water scarcity, lack of drugs in some rural health centres, security challenges as well as destruction of farm crops by herders in most of the communities visited.

He said the roads linking Bukpe-Dapa and Chida communities have been in a deplorable state thereby subjecting people of communities to untold hardship, especially during the rainy season.

At Dapa community, the traditional ruler decried the absence of portable water which, he said, has forced the rural dwellers into drink from any available source, mostly unhygienic.

He said villagers often trekked to a nearby hill to scoop water from under the rock.

“During my interaction with the village chief, he told me the risk his people normally take, especially women that usually leave their houses at night and trek to the hills to wait for several hours to get water,” he said.

Alhaji Abdullaziz said the community, which is located on a rocky hill, required a motorised borehole, noting that some of the hand-dug boreholes at the community hardly supplied any water.

According to him, a boundary dispute between the people of Dapa, Tika and Sumami was another challenge his chiefdom is facing but promised to meet with the Agabe of Gwargwada-Ugbada to address the lingering dispute.

He also said he received complaints from village chiefs across his chiefdom about incessant destruction of farm crops by herders, adding that he would soon summon Fulani leaders, farmers and village chiefs to address the issue and avert any crisis.

“The issue of unemployment in my chiefdom is another challenge we have also identified, which I will also put in writing to the council chairman, Honourable Danladi Chiya, to come to our aid,” he said.

He said he has directed the palace secretary to compile some of the challenges, especially those related to water scarcity, bad road network and out-of-stock syndrome in health centres which he would forward to the FCT Administration for intervention.