The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved emergency work on the Dogon Gida box culvert, nearing collapse.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Felix Abuah, the Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, stated this in an interview in Abuja on Tuesday.
It was reported that 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. Due to the culvert’s low elevation, community members often lose their loved ones to flooding while trying to cross it during the rainy season.
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 area,” he said.
Florence Wenegieme, the director of forecasting, response, and mitigation, barricaded the culvert and described its condition as a disaster waiting to happen.
She stated that the culvert is one of the FCT’s most vulnerable locations, particularly to flooding during the rainy season.
Similarly, the ward head of Lokogoma Village, Irimiya Kanpani, appealed to the federal government, the FCT minister, and the Abuja Municipal Area Council chairman to come to their aid.
Kanpani explained that the culvert was constructed in 2016 through community efforts, adding that community members mobilized 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.
