By Sadiq Abubakar, Abuja.
The newly installed Etsu of Wako in Kwali area council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Abdulaziz Ibrahim Usman, Saturday led some members of his traditional council on a tour of rural communities in his chiefdom.
Alhaji Usman, while speaking with our correspondent at the end of the tour, identified a lack of good access roads, water scarcity, lack of drugs at some rural health centers, security challenges as well as reported cases of destruction of farm crops by Fulani cattle rearers.
He said the roads linking Bukpe-Dapa and Chida communities have been in a deplorable state, which he said people of the communities suffered untold hardship, especially during the peak rainy season.
Read more FCT: Etsu Of Wako Chiefdom Calls For Synergy With Security Agents To Tackle Security Challenges.
Also speaking a resident of the Dapa community said the area is facing challenges of lack of portable drinking water, saying the villagers trek down a rocky hill to scoop water coming out under the rock.
“And during my interaction with the village chief, he told me the risk his people normally take especially women leave their house at night and trek down the rocky hills to wait for several hours to get water,” he said.
He said the community which is located on a rocky hill required a motorized borehole, saying some hand dug boreholes at the community hardly supply water.
According to him, a boundary dispute between people of Dapa, Tika, and Sumami was also another challenge his chiefdom was facing, even as he said he will meet with members of his traditional council on how to with the Agape of Gwargwada-Ugbada to address the lingering dispute.
The monarch also said he received complaints from village chiefs across his chiefdom about incessant destruction of farm crops by cattle of herders, which he said the palace was making arrangements to summon all the Fulani chefs, farmers, and village chiefs to his palace to address the issue to avoid a crisis.
“And besides, the issue of unemployment in my chiefdom is another challenge we have also identified, which I will also put in writing to the council chairman, Danladi Chiya, to come to our aid,” he said.
He said he has directed the palace secretary to compile some of the challenges especially the lack of pipe-borne water, deplorable road network, and lack of drugs in some rural health centers so that he can forward it to FCT administration for urgent intervention.
