51-Year-Old Abandoned Bridge: Mbala Community Begs Abia, Enugu Govts For Urgent Intervention
By Our Correspondents - December 16, 2019039

The damaged Mmam bridge
"OVER 5,000 NIGERIAN MEN HAVE OVERCOME POOR BEDROOM PERFORMANCE SYNDROME DUE TO THIS BRILLIANT DISCOVERY"https:///2lLYhDx
“We need help! Over 51 years of neglect is unjustifiable. A change of heart is required. Enough is enough.” That was the chorus by delegates to the extraordinary general meeting of Mbala Town Development Union (MTDU), which held at Nkwo Mbala, Isuochi, in the Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State last weekend.

Mbala community was unanimous in their call for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Anambra-Imo River Basin & Rural Development Authority to urgently execute abandoned Mmam Bridge and Mbala-Achi Road projects.

The community believed that this would not only reintegrate the Mbala community with the rest of the world but would also restore the economic life of the people.


The president general of Mbala Town Development Union,. Ndubuisi Ikeh, who addressed journalists at the end of the meeting, which held in Mbala, recalled that the Mmam bridge, which was built by Shell BP in 1955 created as an alternative route to Enugu following an incident of gas flaring that occurred at Ugwu Oba-Enugu road which resulted in accessing to Enugu city being cut off.

The bridge, according to him, became the gateway for motorists and commuters alike traveling to Enugu, Onitsha, and northern Nigeria. It also opened the way for inter-community marriages to take place between Isuochi and Oji River people. Market men and women moved freely from their community in the opposite direction as means of transportation were readily available. Economic and social activities boomed.

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He stated further that Isuochi people living in such areas as Enugu, Onitsha, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Zaria, and other parts of Western and Northern Nigeria usually pass through the Achi-Awlaw- Mmam Bridge route.

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Similarly, Achi, Inyi, and Awlaw people residing in cities in Imo and Abia states, as well as South-South states, usually made use of the same route to get to their ancestral homes.

Ikeh noted that 13 years after the construction of the Mmam bridge, and in the heat of the Nigeria Civil War, soldiers loyal to the Nigerian government desperate to advance and launch their attack on Okigwe bombed the bridge to gain entry.

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“The joy brought to the people of the Old Okigwe Division as well as Oji River people following the construction of the Mmam Bridge was cut short on September 15, 1968, when Nigerian troops bombed the bridge to facilitate their advancement towards Okigwe during the Nigerian Civil War.

“After the destruction, the people had to endure painfully, with the hope that one day a sensitive government would rehabilitate the bridge. But 51 years after, the situation has remained hopeless, and the endless hope for reconstruction, elusive,” Ikeh said.

The President General lamented that the damaged bridge has rendered Mbala a closet at best while also observing that successive governments’ neglect of the damaged bridge has dealt a significant blow on the economic, social, and cultural lives of Mbala people and her neighbours across the bridge as well as hindering socio-economic development of the areas.

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“Over five decades now, we have continued to suffer untold hardship in the hands of successive governments from the old Imo and Anambra states to the present day Abia and Enugu states. Successive governments have roundly neglected us. And that is why the road leading to the bridge is in very deplorable condition,” Ikeh lamented.

Another community leader, Oluchukwu Uzor, outlined a few reasons why the government should urgently come to the rescue of the border community by prioritising the reconstruction of the damaged Mmam Bridge and the road leading to the bridge:

According to him, “The abandoned Mmam Bridge and the road are a constant reminder of the negative impacts of the civil war, 49 years after. The bride there was destroyed by federal troop. Ever since, Mbala people have remained cut off from the neighboring states of Enugu and Anambra through that route, in addition to access to agricultural land with the result that there is hardly any economic activity in Mbala town, and the negative impacts are evident and visible.

“An impressive achievement of the former premier of the defunct Eastern Region, late Dr. Michael Okpara, was the establishment of Mbala Cashew Plantation, which still thrives today. The plantation contributes a significant amount of the estimated Cashew production figure of 45,000 metric tonnes per year that Abia State produces. In the contemporary Nigeria of today, it should not be in doubt what a plantation of the magnitude in Mbala can contribute to the economy of Abia State in terms of job creation opportunities. Yet, the road to this vital agricultural cash cow has been neglected for over 51 years.

it go good, it go good. since 1931 na em make nigeria no good today

51years or 51months?

Haters rushing to this thread to spew trash

Yet you've been endorsing the same leaders that kept neglecting you.