Background

Obeagu is a border community sandwiched between Enugu and Ebonyi states. Although located within the boundaries of Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, it, however, shares several cultural ties with neighbouring communities in Nkanu East and Isi-Uzo LGAs of Enugu State.

Like the surrounding neighbouring communities, Obeagu faces a harsh reality: living in a state of nature where survival is a daily struggle. With no access road, healthcare facilities, potable water, functional schools, and electricity, their lives are truly brutish and short.

The lack of access roads and the location of the community pose another existential threat to the survival of the people: incessant attacks, killings, and burning of houses and destruction of farmlands by killer herders have become the lot of the community.

Located along the Enugu-Nkalagu-Egedegede-Eha-AmufuIkem-Obollo-Afor Road, the community is only accessible through a deplorable 15-kilometre road, with 9-10 kilometres of farmlands and dangerous terrain, making it difficult for vehicles to access, especially during the rainy season.

Flicker of hope

Obeagu is also far away from Abakaliki, the state capital, almost 60 kilometres apart, but closer to Enugu State. Being a remote border community located amidst farmlands and forests, the community suffers lack of attention from successive governments in Ebonyi just like its Enugu neighbours also suffer lack of attention from successive governments in Enugu State.

Of course, except now that the current governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, who hails from Owo in Nkanu East LGA of Enugu State is bringing humongous infrastructural development around the remote Enugu communities that share boundaries with Obeagu, like Owo, Ubahu, Amankanu, and Eha-Amufu.

Suffering

Attendees at a recent burial, including journalists, experienced first-hand the challenges of the road leading to Obeagu, with some spending hours trying to free their vehicles from the mud. This highlights the dire situation faced by the community, which has been neglected by the government, leaving its over 10,000 residents to suffer in silence.

The only inaccessible road is the main reason residents of the agrarian community convey corpses of their deceased relatives to the morgue in EhaAmufu and other places in motorcycle for kilometres to deposit during rainy season and wait till dry season to be buried.

In a situation where families want to bury the corpses of loved ones during the rainy season, after they convey the body to Egedegede, the family will have to procure the services of willing young men to carry the corpse on their head for several kilometres before a motorcycle will then carry it to the deceased family.

Sadly, the community is cut off from the rest of the state, due to lack of access roads. Visiting the community is a nightmare as it is only accessible through a track road by foot or motorcycle popularly known as ‘Okada’. In the community, expectant mothers go through hell due to lack of access to medical attention. Children trek for hours under the scorching sun and rain to go to school.

Lamentations

Some residents describe the hardship being faced by the people as akin to hell on earth due to the absence of basic infrastructure and social amenities. “My people live like refugees in their father’s land with nobody showing concern,” Onyekachi Edeh, a community leader said.

When our correspondent visited the community recently, the road was practically deserted like in a war zone as only a handful of people were seen trekking from Egedegede junction to Obeagu community. You can hardly get a motorcycle outside Eha-Amufu and Nkalagu if you are going to the community once it is 4pm.

“My brother, that community is an abandoned community in Ebonyi State,” said a commercial motorcyclist (Okada) who was hired to convey this reporter to the community. “I don’t know the kind of offence the people committed that made administration after administration in Ebonyi State forget them. No access road, no hospital and no clean water.

The only secondary school in the community is completely in ruins. You hardly find teachers in the school after some teachers posted to a school were massacred in April 2021 by Fulani herdsmen. “All the teachers posted to the school from outside the community visit once or twice in a month.

Even some indigenous teachers posted to the college have also abandoned the school. Most of them live in Enugu and Abakaliki and visit the school once or twice a month. “The only secondary school built through community efforts was burnt down while two blocks of two classrooms each were destroyed by rainstorm.

The incident happened over three years ago without any attention.” Our correspondent observed that the only government healthcare centre situated along the road had only one government staffer that hardly visited the primary healthcare centre because of the security risks of going to the community.

The centre with no electricity or water is now manned by two community health volunteers. “The situation, lack of basic drugs and qualified health personnel, were reasons pregnant women hardly patronise the facility. They rather patronise local birth attendants,” a resident, who gave his name as Emeka Emeh, told our correspondent.

Lamenting the development, a former Councillor of Obeagu Ward, Mr Ede Ejike said: “What is happening in the community is something I cannot fathom the reason behind the abandonment. When I was Councillor, there was nothing I did not do to draw the attention of the council chairman then to build drainage culverts along the only road for easy access.

But like every average Nigerian politician, he promised but did nothing.” Narrating the tortuous nature of the road, Ejike said that 10 residents of the community had been killed plying the road by Fulani herdsmen and seven kidnapped because of its near impassable state.

“Herdsmen routinely lay siege along the road and kill and abduct residents and take them to Benue State for ransom. Politicians from this community are seriously lobbying those in authority to look our way but nothing is forthcoming. “My community is like an orphan that has nobody to speak or intercede for her in the government.

Our neighbouring community, Nkalaha is suffering from the same situation. The two communities are boundary communities. During the administration of former Governor David Umahi and the current Federal Minister of Works, our people made several entreaties to the administration to at least construct the only access road to the two communities.

But as usual after promises nothing happened. “We are now in another administration; we hope that this administration of Governor Francis Nwifuru will not look the other way like previous administrations. The more years pass by the worse our situation becomes.

“There’s no electricity in the community because the two transformers in the community have gone bad. For four years now the first transformer spoiled that section of the community and has not had electricity supply. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc. (EEDC) has asked them to buy another transformer to replace it.

They have paid close to N1.5 million to the DisCo. Now, the second transformer supplying electricity to the second part of the community has gone bad too. For over eight months now EEDC hasn’t repaired the transformer.” For the immediate past Councillor of the community, Casmir Eze, it is also a problem.

He said that what is happening to his community, Obeagu political ward, “is a very bad omen,” adding that the worst that has befallen the community was incessant herdsmen attacks, who took advantage of the deplorable road to cause havoc.” He said that because of lack of access road, some time ago bandits masquerading as herdsmen attacked the community and killed 18 young men on March 29, 2021.

“In October 13, 2022, they returned and killed one young man, kidnapped three and injured two. After collecting ransom they released the three. This year, June 17, they attacked again, killing one and kidnapped a 12-year-old school girl. It has become a routine.

The local vigilantes were dislodged by the Nigerian military when they invaded the community in the guise of flushing members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). “So our problems are numerous,” he said, adding: “If it is only carrying a corpse on one’s head and walking several kilometres or conveying it to a morgue with a commercial motorcycle we will be hoping that one day the government will remember the plight of the community.”

On why the community conveys corpses on motorcycles, Ezeh said: “The reason is that the road is not passable and most of the people that die, the family usually take the body to the morgue and wait till dry season when people can access the community by vehicles otherwise if you try it during the rainy season your vehicle will spoil on the road, or even stuck in the mud.

So because of mud nearly all through they can’t bring their dead ones to bury until when the road is dry; maybe from the middle of November, December and January they start bringing their dead ones to bury.

Within this period you see a lot of burial here. So that’s what we do. “Our youths are trying; sometimes they go and dig gutters in all the places that are terribly bad to create water ways. So these are what the youths have been doing. Sometimes they clear the road and make it passable, they will create a channel where the water will pass and that is what we have been doing to alleviate problems.”

Pleas unheeded

He added: “Our people have pleaded with the government at both local and state levels. Even when the Vice President came after the first Fulani herdsmen attack, the then governor of Ebonyi State (David Umahi) told the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo that the bad road needed to be constructed.

‘‘That road is about 10km from Egedegede junction to the railway crossing in the heart of the community, it’s not much but it is not what the community can do on its own. To construct drainage culverts and gutters requires intensive manpower.

It is not just what the community can handle alone. So we beg the government to help us do something about the road. “You can imagine carrying a corpse on the head or conveying a corpse with a motorcycle to the morgue for several kilometres because of the bad road. This is the reality we face every single day.”

President-General speaks

The President General of the Obeagu community, Kenneth Okoh, also described the development as painful and difficult. “In fact, we have been suffering a lot right from the inception because if you come to our road it is the worst road in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. And because of the bad road our people have been slaughtered like goats on the road.

Because of the deplorable state of our only access road to the outside world, during the rainy season you will find it difficult to come to the community.” On fixing the road, Okoh said it’s not what the community can do on its own, adding: “It is not what the community can do, the road is about 10 kilometres and every year we clear the road but during the rainy season water will destroy it.

We are begging the government to come to our aid because most of our boys are being wasted and slaughtered like goats on the road.” Okafor Nwa-Ogenye, motorcycle rider who also specialises in carrying corpses to the morgue, told our correspondent that the business is not a tea party; pointing out that it’s not every Okada man that can carry a corpse. “Our road is bad, it is giving us headaches and concerns.

Whenever it rains people complain so much about high transport fares because of bad roads. A road that is less than a few minutes if it’s good. Why should we spend 30 minutes to one hour because of the bad road? During the dry season we collect N300 and N500 depending on the time but now because of the state of the road we charge between N1, 500 and N2, 000 per passenger.

“If someone dies, before agreeing to convey the corpse to the mortuary located in our neighbouring community, Eha-Amufu, we charge between N18, 000 and N25, 000 depending on the state of the road. At times if it had rained we charge as much as N30, 000. ‘‘Cars don’t come here when it rains and more especially during the rainy season.

For those who died in the city, if their people want to bury them, there is a spot where they will get to; then they will need a motorcycle or wheelbarrow to take the corpse down to the community. “Apart from the bad road, kidnappers are taking advantage of the bad road to kill and abduct people along the same road now.”

Corroborating Okafor’s submission, Okechukwu Anyanwu, another commercial motorcyclist, described carrying a corpse on a motorcycle as a most difficult job in the commercial motorcycle business. “No matter how bad the road may present, you cannot fall with the corpse or bring it down until you get to the morgue,” he said.

Narrating the difficulty they face now, Okechukwu said: “Because of the bad road and insecurity, we don’t stay in Nkalagu and Eha-Amufu beyond 4pm.

Nobody wants to fall victim to herdsmen attacks. Once it’s 4pm every commercial motorcyclist will be running back home. We have discovered that most of the attacks occurred between 4.30 and 6.30p.m. Giving insight into the plight of the community, Elder Olinya Abaru, an octogenarian, said that the people are suffering because of lack of basic social amenities, describing a community with a population of over 8,000 without a functional hospital as a tragedy.

According to him: “There is no hospital in the community – private individuals who attempted to open hospitals in the community didn’t last because there’s no supporting facilities like electricity, good water and worst part of it, there is no access road to the community. If you are a doctor operating a hospital here, will you be trekking for over seven kilometres to go outside to buy drugs especially during the rainy season? This is our story, my son.

“When I was a little boy I worked on the road about 65 years ago. I didn’t expect that I would leave this world without that road being constructed. Vehicles didn’t ply the road then and my community tried very hard to even put the road to the state it is now. We laid the foundation of the road. We shared the work on the road village by village.

I felt that by now the government would have looked in our way and constructed the road but we are still suffering. “You hear anything about the government only when elections are coming close. They will come and promise heaven and earth, thereafter you won’t see them again until next four years, during another election.

The government of Ebonyi State has rejected and abandoned us but we don’t know what our offence is.” He lamented that herdsmen regularly attack the community and escape because there is no government presence or supporting infrastructure. “We don’t have telephone network coverage here in the community.

Before you hear about the attack or kidnap incident the attackers had gone with their victims,” he cried. The road had been captured severely for construction under a federal constituency project but contractors after collecting money from the Federal Government they will abandon it, checks by our correspondent had revealed.

Signs of abandoned projects are dotted on the road. Under former Senator Obinna Ogba, who represented Ebonyi Central Senatorial zone and Anayo Edwin-Nwonu, who represented Ishielu/Ezza North federal constituency, the road was captured and funded under their constituency projects but nothing was done. Obeagu is indeed a community in dire need of government attention.