Neglected Ebonyi community where corpses ‘ride’ okada to mortuaries

RAPHAEL EDE reveals the harrowing reality in the Obeagu community, in the Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, where neglect and the absence of an access road have left residents vulnerable to relentless herdsmen attacks. This forsaken community endures frequent killings and abductions with no security intervention, highlighting a severe lack of government presence and support.

The lack of government presence and security has created a culture of impunity, allowing herdsmen to invade and terrorise the Obeagu community at will, leaving residents in a state of constant fear and displacement. Investigation shows that once it is 4 pm, outsiders hardly go in or out of the community for fear of being kidnapped by herdsmen on the dilapidated and deplorable access road that stretches about 6km leading to the community.

For the residents of Obeagu Community in Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, life is harsh and unrelenting. Their daily existence mirrors the Hobbesian state of nature, characterised by constant struggle and a brutal fight for survival.

Obeagu, a boundary community of Ebonyi State with Enugu State, boasting of over 10,000 population, has no access road, or health facility, either owned by the government or private, no potable water, dysfunctional primary and secondary schools and no electricity.

Located on the Enugu-Nkalagu-Egedegede-Eha-Amufu-Ikem-Obollo-Afor Road, the community can only be accessed through Egedegede, immediately after Nigercem junction in the Amazui, route from Nkalagu through Eha-Amufu federal road. If you are coming from Nsukka or Benue State through Eha-Amufu, the Obeagu Community is located immediately after Ochin River, in the boundary between Enugu and Ebonyi states.

The community has boundaries with seven communities, two in Ebonyi State and five in Enugu State. The communities are – Eha-Amufu, Umueru, Agbuogbazi Nike, Amankanu and Ubahu all in Enugu State; while Amazui and Nkalahi are the only two communities that border Ebonyi State.

To access the community, which has only one deplorable access road through Egedegede, a first-time visitor would need to charter a motorcycle at either Nkalagu or Eha-Amufu. It takes 45 minutes to one hour from either Nkalagu or Eha-Amufu to get to the community. Both from Eha-Amufu and Nkalagu to Egedegede, that is Obeagu Junction is motorable, but from Egedegede to Obeagu main town is where the problem lies. The road is about 15 kilometres, having a stretch of about 9 to 10 kilometres of farmlands yet dangerous. Despite riding a commercial motorcycle otherwise called okada, one will trek for nearly six kilometres. especially during the rainy season.

On May 3, 2024, our correspondent attended the burial of a colleague’s mother, Mrs Helen Ede. The burial would have probably been marred if not for the corpse being carried in a luxury Sport Utility Vehicle. Otherwise, the corpse would have been trapped and relations would have been forced to trek with it in the casket for kilometres.

All those who attended the burial from outside the community got stranded. Some trekked kilometres after their vehicles were trapped in the mud, while others who could not find their way out had to return without getting to the burial venue. Some of the journalist friends of the son of the deceased spent several hours pulling their bus out of the mud where it was trapped on the road. It shows the brutish and hard life to which the residents are subjected.

The impassable road forces the agrarian community to transport corpses to the morgue in Eha-Amufu and elsewhere by motorcycle during the rainy season, often waiting until the dry season to bury them. If families wish to bury their loved ones during the rainy season, they must hire young men to carry the corpse on foot for several kilometres before a motorcycle can transport it to the family houses.

Sadly, the community is cut off from the rest of the state, due to a lack of access roads. Visiting the community is a nightmare, as it is only accessible through the bad road by foot or okada.

In the community, expectant mothers suffer greatly due to inadequate healthcare access, while children endure long treks under harsh sun and rain to attend school. The severe lack of basic infrastructure and social amenities makes life feel like hell on earth, leaving residents living like refugees in their land, with little concern from outsiders.

When our correspondent visited the community on Thursday, July 11, 2024, 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 4 pm.

“My brother, that community is an abandoned community in Ebonyi State,” said a commercial motorcyclist who was chartered to convey this reporter to the community. “I don’t know the kind of offence they committed that made successive administrations 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 were massacred in April 2021 by Fulani herdsmen.

“All the teachers posted to the school from outside the community visit once or twice 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 while two blocks of two classrooms each were destroyed by rainstorm. The incident happened over three years ago without any attention.”

Our correspondent reports that the only government health centre situated on the road has only one government worker who hardly visits because of security risks. The centre with no electricity or water is now manned by two community health volunteers.

“The 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: “I cannot fathom the reason behind the abandonment of the community. When I was a councillor, there was nothing I did not do to draw the attention of the then-council chairman to build drainage culverts along the only road for easy access. But like every average Nigerian politician, he promised but did nothing.

“The chairman at the time, Henry Eze, who is currently representing Ishielu North State constituency, asked me to get an engineer to survey and find out how many drainage culverts would be constructed on the road. Unfortunately, after everything, he refused to fund it. You passed the road, at least you can tell our story better. Seeing is believing.”

Ejike regretted that 10 residents of the community had been killed on the road by armed herdsmen and seven others kidnapped. “Herdsmen routinely lay siege along the road to 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 who has nobody to speak or intercede on its behalf 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, who is the current Minister of Works, our people made several entreaties to the administration to, at least, construct the only access roads to the two communities. As usual, after promises, nothing happened.

“We are now in another administration; we hope that this administration of Governor Francis Nwifuru will look our way. 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 become spoiled. For four years now since the first transformer was spoiled, the section of the community depending on the transformer has not had an electricity supply. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc asked them to buy a transformer to replace it. They have paid close to N1.5m to the company. Now, the second transformer supplying electricity to the second section of the community recently got spoiled. For over eight months now, EEDC has not repaired the transformer.”

The immediate-past councillor of the community, Casmir Eze, told The According described what is happening to his community, Obeagu political ward, as “a very bad omen,” adding that the worse that has befallen the community is the incessant attacks from armed herdsmen attack who take advantage of the deplorable state of the road to cause havoc.

He said because of the lack of access road, bandits masquerading as herdsmen attacked the community and killed 18 young men on March 29, 2021. “On October 13, 2022, they returned and killed one young man, kidnapped three and injured two. After collecting ransom, they released the three. This year, on June 17, they attacked again, killed one and kidnapped a 12-year-old schoolgirl. 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 the Indigenous People of Biafra.

“So, our problems are numerous. If it is only carrying a corpse on its head and walking several kilometres or conveying a corpse 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 carry corpses on the bike, Ezeh said, “The road is not passable and most of the people that died, the family usually take the body to the morgue and wait till the dry season when people can access the community through the vehicle, otherwise if you try it during the rainy season, your vehicle will get spoilt on the road, or even stuck in the mud. Because of mud on the road, they can’t bring their dead ones for burial until when the road is dry; maybe from the middle of November, December and January, they start bringing their dead ones for burial. 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 bad to create waterways. So these are what the youth 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 the problem”

He added, “Our people have pleaded with the government at both local and state levels. Even when the vice president came after the first herdsmen attack, the then-governor of Ebonyi State told the then-Vice President Yemi Osibanjo that the road needed to be constructed, because it was bad. That road is about 10km from Egedeged junction to the railway crossing in the heart of the community, it is not too long but the community cannot bear the cost. Constructing drainage culverts and gutters cannot be done anyhow, 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 bad roads. This is the reality we face every single day.”

The President General of the Obeagu Community, Kenneth Okoh, also described the development as painful and difficult.

“We have been suffering a lot right from the inception because if you come to our road it is the worst road in Ishielu LGA of Ebonyi State. Because of the bad road, our people were slaughtered like goats. 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 why the community has not been able to fix the road, Okoh said, “It is not what the community can do. The road is about 10km 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, killed, and slaughtered like goats on the road.”

A motorcyclist who specialised in carrying corpses to the morgue, Okafor Nwa-Ogenye, told our correspondent that the business is not a tea party.

“Not every bike man 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. A road that is less than a minute’s drive if it is good is what we spend 30 minutes to one hour driving on it, because of its bad shape. During the dry season, we collect between N300 and N500, depending on the time but now because of bad roads, we charge N1,500 and N2,000 per passenger.

“If someone dies, before we convey the corpse to the mortuary located in our neighbouring community at Eha-Amufu, we charge between N18,000 and N25,000, depending on the state of the road. At times if it rains, we may charge N30,000 to convey the corpse to the morgue. Cars don’t come here when it rains and, more especially, during the rainy season. For those who die in the city, if their people want to bury them, there is a spot where they will get to from where they will need a motorcycle or wheelbarrow to take the corpse down to the community.

“Apart from this, kidnappers are also taking advantage of the bad road to kill and abduct people along the same road.”

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

Narrating the difficulty they now face, Okechukwu said “Because of the bad road and insecurity, we don’t stay in Nkalagu and Eha-Amufu beyond 4 pm. Nobody wants to fall victim to the herdsmen’s attack. Once it is 4 pm, every commercial motorcyclist will be running back home. We have discovered that all the attacks happened between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm.

Giving insight into the plight of the community, Elder Olinya Abaru, an octogenarian said the people are suffering because of a lack of basic social amenities, as he described a community of over 8,000 population without a functional hospital as a tragedy.

“There is no hospital in the community – private individuals who attempted to open hospitals in the community didn’t last, because there are no supporting facilities like electricity, good water and the 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 buy drugs, especially during the rainy season?

“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 getting 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 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 the next four years, during electioneering. The government of Ebonyi State has rejected and abandoned us but we don’t know what our offence is.”

He lamented that herdsmen regularly attacked the community and escaped because there was 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 said.

The road had been captured severely for construction under a federal constituency project but contractors, after collecting money from the Federal Government, will abandon it, a check by our correspondent revealed signs of abandoned projects on the road.

Under former Senator Obinna Ogba, who represented Ebonyi Central Senatorial District and Anayo Edwin-Nwoñu, who represented Ishielu/Ezza North Federal Constituency, the road was captured and funded under the constituency project, but nothing was done.