Sir, it is my pleasure to join thousands of Ijumu Indigen in warmly wishing you a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year in advance. We bless God who placed you on the throne and gave us the grace to see the ending of another great year. It is heart-warming to congratulate you and indeed all indegen of Ijumu on the successes recorded by your representation.
Our Local Government must not be carried away by this feat but should set out machineries for consolidation of grounds achieved.
Honorable sir, it is with due respect and honour, heart full of pains and grievance that I write to you today. I want to start by commending you for your effort so far towards rescuing Ayerians. though your mission is yet to be accomplished, we pray for a positive change.
Honorable sir, without taking much of your time, I would like to go straight to the point which is the situation of Ayere/Ajowa road that is in a dilapidated state.
Sir, I am writing to you for the second time in one calendar year, this is because of the increase in need to urgently take action over this road.
With due respect sir, this road has become a nightmare to the entire commuters, particularly residents of Ayere where you hail from and as well as the neighbouring communities. It is no longer motorable and unsafe due to fear of been kidnapped, we are crying out loud.
The condition of this road has brought about many changes; though negative changes like… Change in transportation fare. From Ayere to Ikare town which was N500 is now N1000. Delay on the road due to pot-holes and swamps. Constant accident, fighting among road users due to lane, kidnapped of passengers. Etc.
However, i have in many occasions written both to the state government and you over this road issue but no action taken, despite your assurance in your reply to my previous letter where you emphatically stated “noted for action”
In my previous letter I established the fact that I am not blind to the fact that you may not have the absolute power as a state legislator to get this road working but your people believe you can through lobbying and sponsoring of bill which I personally believe that your academic prowess will help in facilitating such.
Overtime, people will say that state’s boarder road like Ayere/Ajowa road isn’t a state road that it belongs to the federal government.
Now the big question is , what happen to other states like Ondo where their road linking Ayere ( Kogi ) to Ajowa been carried out by the state? Well if the state would not do this road for us, then let them attract the federal government to take responsibility. That is why we voted them in.
Having said these, it is important you draw the attention of the governor to the plight of silent minority of his people who feel they have been neglected and treated unfairly in the fair award of road construction since 1999 to date and the execution of same.
They have continued to wonder what their offence is, that they are neglected and treated as though they were not in the map of Kogi metropolis. Residents of Ayere-Ijumu, view it as ironical whereby Ondo state had constructed the Ayere/Ajowa road uptill their boarder, there seems to be overlooked by the government they overwhelmingly cast their votes for.
The state of Ayere/Ajowa road connecting Ondo and Kogi state has become death traps, which has become no go areas and commence palliative measure of atleast grading as the dryseason sets in.
The issue of Ayere/Ajowa road has over lingered and the over seven thousand Youths has resolved as at 1am, 7th December 2020 that:
(1)we are giving you four weeks as our elected representative in the state Assembly to sponsor a bill,
(2) that after four weeks and nothing is done, we shall embark on a peaceful protest. Route: from Ajowa road to Express, then Ilukpa at Iyara down to Onah where road users may not be able to access that major road for hours.
By so doing, we believe both the state government and the federal government will hear our voice.
Hon. Sir, thank you for your time, as I pray that God gives you wisdom to handle this situation.
Long live Ayere
long live Ijumu
Long live Kogi state.
Arowolo Solomon Alaba writes from Abuja
+2348161283935
