About 30 communities in Panda Development Area, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa state were cut off after a bridge linking them collapsed.

The bridge, located at Kuda village, collapsed following a heavy rainfall that lasted for hours, making the people desolate and stranded for over two weeks now.

Our correspondent who visited the place at the weekend, reported that vehicles no longer playing the road, a few ones that managed to reach, would have no option than handing over passengers and in some cases goods to another vehicle that would complete the journey.

Meanwhile, a gubernatorial aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Bar Danladi Umaru Halilu Envulu-anza, with his team were trapped accidentally along the road while taking a towel to the place as they met the condition terrible.
Envulu-anza and his entourage were forced to leave their vehicles and enter commercial cars and motorcycles that conveyed them to the paramount traditional chief of Panda chiefdom HRH Joel Amnge, Odyong Nyakpa as well as Kube chief, Christopher Jatau (JP).

While welcoming the visitors, the traditional ruler of Panda lamented the poor condition of the road which has been there for decades without any intervention from either the government or individual, causing hardship on the communities.

According to him, ” the issue of our road has been there for long even to the point that people are making caricature of us, some of us nearly lost our jobs for this struggle in time past.

“Today, they are saying Panda bridge has collapsed. It is the whole 30 communities that were disconnected. You can imagine the numbers of people in this area.

“They cannot buy fuel again in this town, and if you want to grind grains, you have to pay double of the usual amount, because the owner of the engine also have to go to a nearby town (Gitata) to buy fuel, and you know he would definitely charge the people high because of the stress he undergone.

“Everything has increased and there is nothing we can do about it. This is the situation we find ourselves, but we thank God because He is aware of everything happening and would surely wipe away our tears at the appropriate time.

Stressing on the importance of the road, the traditional chief further stated that there is no road in the state that one can invest on that would get massive acceptability and mutual understanding from the Federal Government and the state.

He said the road that people often called as Panda road, “is not only meant for Panda alone, because anybody that is coming from the northeast, southern Kaduna, must pass through this place to Abuja.

“Supposing the road is fixed, those coming from Jos to Abuja instead of spending 3 hours, it would only take you 2 hours to enter Abuja.
“In times of economic and security wise, it would solve the problem of hold up in karimu, Masaka and the others. Because all commuters passing plying the road and if they don’t have anything to do in Keffi or Karu, would see no reason pass through there.

On his path, the aspirant Bar Danladi Halilu Envulu-anza sympathised with residents of the area, assisting them he would look into their issues collectively if they form government come 2019.

•Sourced from a Tribune report

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