Leaders and residents of Otor-Edo Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area have issued an urgent appeal to the Delta State Government, describing their community as a forgotten enclave that has been denied basic infrastructure and the dividends of democracy since 1999 till date.
In a statement signed by the Community President General, Comr. Kennedy Oghenerukevwe Egole, the people of Otor-Edo said they have never known what it means to enjoy basic human dignity or the dividends of democracy, despite being one of the 72 communities in Ughelli South and part of the ancient Ughievwen Kingdom.
“We have no tarred road, no clinic, no market, no pipe-water”.
The community listed what it called a “painful reality” of protracted neglect disclosing that Otor-Edo community has never had a single tarred road. The statement noted that during the rainy season, existing tracks become impassable, cutting residents off from markets, hospitals, and schools. The statement added that even a clinic or primary health care facility has never been brought to the community as Pregnant women, the sick, and the elderly travel long distances before accessing medical facilities and often with fatal consequences.
The statement further lament the lack of functional market, noting that traders and market women has lack a designated space to buy and sell, undermining livelihoods and local commerce including the lack of no pipe-borne water. Residents it says now depend on local wells and streams that dry up during the dry season and exposing them to water-borne diseases.
“Please, include Otor-Edo Community in the development plan of Delta State,” the statement read.
“We are not asking for luxury. We are not asking for political favors. We are demanding what is just, equitable, and befitting for citizens of Delta State: roads, water, health, and education.”
“Our children are learning under leaking roofs with just one block of classroom built over there decades ago through communal effort and local contributions.
“Today, that same structure is described as “roofless, dilapidated, abandoned, and unsafe for learning.
“Our children sit under leaking skies to learn and with the rains approaching, there may soon be no place for them to learn at all. We are appealing so that no child will be subjected to such horrible conditions in the 21st century as education is a right, not a privilege.
While commending Governor Sheriff Oborevwori MORE Agenda and his developmental strides across the state, the Otor-Edo Community implored all elected and appointed leaders from Ughelli South at state and national levels to ensure the community is captured in the current or next budgetary allocation.
Comrade Kennedy Egole in the statement said; “My beloved leaders, we beg you, See the children learning in roofless classrooms. See our mothers trekking long distances for water. See our sick dying because there is no clinic nearby.
“Otor-Edo Community should not be made to wait for another generation to enjoy what other communities take for granted.”
The community described itself as “peaceful, loyal, and law-abiding,” insisting that all it seeks is “to be seen, to be heard, and to be remembered.”
As the Delta State Government continues to roll out projects under the MORE Agenda, residents of Otor-Edo say they are watching and hoping that this time, their plea will not be trivialized or lost in the noise of politics.