The demonstrators

The communities are Vittim, Tua, Kotingli, and Bagliga.

The demonstrators clad in red and black attire, held placards with inscriptions such as “no water no vote”, “we are also human beings”, “we deserve better”, “we need good drinking water”, “complete our roads”, and “we stand for our right”.

The demonstra­tors blocked all roads leading to the communities protesting over what they referred to as the failure of the govern­ment to fix the bad roads in the communities.

One of the bad roads

The convener of the demon­stration, Mr Zuberu Bawa, said the poor road network and water problem in the area had been a challenge to the communities.

He said the numerous potholes and dusty nature of the roads in the area made it difficult for drivers to ply the road, and made it expensive to operate transport businesses in the area.

According to Mr Bawa, there were frequent break down of vehi­cles and accidents in the area due to the poor road network.

He said some residents had suffered respiratory tract infections due to the dusty nature of the roads in the area.

He claimed several appeals made to the government to fix the bad roads in the four communities had not been responded to.

According to him, a contractor working on a road in one of the communities had abandoned the project.

“We the youth, elders and women of the various communities give the government a two-week ul­timatum to allow the contractor to return to the site, fix our road and our water system if not they would not like our next actions,” he stated

Mr Bawa called on the govern­ment to pay the contractor working on one of the roads to enable him to return to the site and also pro­vide potable water for the people.

Nma Amushetu Yakubu, the leader of women group in the communities, said they had several miscarriages because of the pot­holes on the roads.

“Our children also go to school late because water crises is a big issue in our communities and our husbands sometimes denied us from getting closer to them,” she added