FCT minister Nyesom Wike has approved emergency work on the Dogon Gida road, nearing collapse.

Felix Abuah, the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) coordinator, stated this in an interview in Abuja on Tuesday.

The FCT Emergency Management Department had, on April 7, barricaded the box culvert to avert the loss of lives.

The culvert was on the access road that linked over 3,000 residents of Lokogoma village, popularly known as the Dogon Gida community, to Ring Road II.

Also, the community members lose their loved ones to flooding while trying to cross the culvert during the rainy season, due to the low elevation of the culvert.

Mr Abuah explained that the minister’s approval was in response to the call to renew the hope of the affected commuters in line with President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda.

“I assure you, work will soon commence in that particular area,” he said.

Florence Wenegieme, the director of Forecasting, Response and Mitigation at FEMD, who barricaded the culvert, described its condition as a disaster waiting to happen.

She described the culvert as one of the FCT’s most vulnerable locations, particularly to flooding during the rainy season.

Similarly, the ward head of Lokogoma, Irimiya Kanpani, appealed to the federal government, the FCT minister, and the Abuja Municipal Area Council chairman to come to their aid.

Mr Kanpani explained that the culvert was constructed in 2016 through community efforts, adding that community members mobilised resources every year to maintain the culvert until it finally gave way.

According to him, there is no year that a community member does not lose a brother, a friend, a father, a mother, or a sister to flooding while trying to cross the culvert during the rainy season. 

(NAN)