There has never been electricity
in Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi, says 47-year-old Danjuma Ashibo. As speaker of the
village parliament which holds its meetings under a tree, Ashibo is
understandably frustrated and increasingly dejected. He was born to a state of
lightlessness that still persists.
Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi is under Abuja
Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and Abdulahi Candido Adamu is the current
chairman. He was re-elected into office in March 2019.
In 2018, electric poles were
installed in the village. But that was where the intervention stopped. The
residents, it appeared, were teased with hope and left with longing.
The wireless, lightless poles are
now scattered around the village situated along Abuja international airport
expressway.
’16 DEAD’ IN 2019
 |
| Funeral for one of the villagers |
Several times, some of them are
knocked down by vehicles speeding through the expressway. In 2019 alone, at
least 16 indigenes including six children have died in such accidents.
According to the community book, not less than 47 have died in the past two
years.
The villagers say they get robbed
and battered when they try to ply the route under the bridge. They also lament
that the pedestrian bridge which is about 600 metres away is prone to
robberies, hence they have no choice but to cross the expressway and hope not
to die.
‘DISEASE’ WATER
 |
| A woman walk through the contaminated water in the village |
Before a solar-powered borehole
was fixed by the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority under the
ministry of water resources, the indigenes relied on a dirty river and water
seeping from the earth in the bush.
 |
| ‘Not too young’ to go to the stream |
Women and children often travel
downhill to the bush to scoop water into plastic bowls and aluminum basins.
Nuhu Auta, a farmer, says children, women, and adults often urinate blood
because of the “disease” water they drink.
The existing borehole, he says,
comes on an average of three times a week. There are usually long queues of
buckets and kegs waiting for D-day when the taps will gush out water.
But before then, they make do
with impure water.
Sunday Biko, the councillor
representing Gosa Kpanyi Kpanyi, and Adamu, AMAC LGA chairman, were contacted over the plight of the indigenes but neither responded to calls and
messages put across to them.
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