Residents lament state of roads, waste disposal system in Lugbe, Abuja

Lugbe town sits southwest of the city centre. The area is one of the slightly affordable districts in Abuja for middle and low-income earners.

Lugbe is nearer to Life Camp, Jabi, Dakibiyu and Wuye to the Northeast. Galadimawa, Lokogoma and popular Games Village lie to the east while Kuje sits to the west.

Abuja’s Airport Road passes through the area leading on to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. From Lugbe, the airport can be reached in about 15 minutes.

The need for better-planned housing in the city reportedly led to this district being absorbed into a newly created phase 5 of the Federal Capital City (FCC) Abuja.

However, the district is in dire need of good roads and better flood management.

Some of the access roads are in deplorable condition. During the rainy season, residents of Trademore estate, Federal housing in Lugbe area count their losses in human life and property.

Residents of the Trademore Estate in Lugbe are still counting their losses following a fierce flood disaster that ravaged the estate in September 2021.

The community was submerged in flood after heavy rains in August and September.

The flood episode that occurred in September had several houses and vehicles ravaged.

A resident disclosed that four dead bodies were recovered in one of the incidents.

The residents disclosed that the estate is usually ravaged by flood during rainy seasons, though the impact of the last September incident was the most disastrous in the last one-decade.

In a particular occurrence, one of the victims was said to have sat in his vehicle after buying drugs from the medicine store.

He was said to have sat in his car hoping that the water level would subside but the water eventually swept him and his new Land Rover away.

To any resident of the area, flood is most dreaded and government is said to be paying less attention to it.
Despite the fact that the district hosts the Novare Gateway Mall, Voice of Nigeria Transmission Station (VON), Nigerian Biotechnology Agency (NABDA) and National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA) amongst others, access roads to estates and residential areas in the town are in a state disrepair.

It also hosts Abuja’s Federal Housing Authority (FHA) estates. These estates primarily accommodate middle-level income earners. Expensive private estates also abound in the area.

However, residents spend at least two hours after the day’s work in traffic orchestrated by collapsed road infrastructure.

Some of them patronise auto repairers almost every week due to the damages caused by poor condition of roads in the area.

A first-timer to Abuja would doubt if areas like Federal Housing Authority (FHA) estates, Aco estate, Car wash, Police sign board, Kapua in Lugbe are part of the FCT.

Besides, the poor road infrastructure in the area poses grave danger to security as police find it difficult to navigate in times of distress calls.

The roads leading to AMAC, Aco estate, along airport road, are in deplorable states.

One Mankind Austin, a resident of Aco estate said: “The roads are horrible I will say. Most of the vehicle owners as you can see are using SUVs and that is because the low threshold cars cannot move around conveniently. I have been to some estates; even upcoming ones and their roads are quite impressive. Our roads here are in poor shape and most occupants have individually dug drainages just to prevent the wear and tear of the soil.

“I would really prefer to address the FCT authorities because they are so interested in building the roads in the city, while neglecting the suburbs and that is why some areas are so densely populated.

Aco estate is a little far from the city center and if they create a good road network, it will enable the government to handle issues of congestion.”

One Ayomide, a TV dish installer said: “The roads are bad, seriously. There are potholes all around.  I am a visitor but I don’t like to live around here due to the bad state of roads.

According to Ayomide Folorunsho, a resident of AMAC estate, “The roads are really rough. It looks quite unplanned because if you look at the roads, there are no drains around; the roads are not yet fixed. This particular road is not comparable to the expressway that is not very far from here and these roads are just in a devastated state.

“To me, they give a negative impression about FCT and as you can see, a car that is supposed to drive from here to its destination maybe in five minutes, will take nothing less than 15-20 minutes to do so. Also, the wear and tear of cars is another issue, because it means you will need more services of auto mechanics.
This is really not good and needs to be taken up by the authorities concerned.

I will appeal to government to fix the roads, make life easier.”

Umar Abdulkarim, a taxi driver, noted that motorists coming out in the morning from Sauka axis to the city centre often encounter hectic challenges before gaining access to the Airport expressway.

He said: “Most of us spend hours at the junction because of the bad portions. We are calling on the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to live up to their responsibilities. People are paying their dues, why then will the government not do its own part?” he said.

He observed that the indiscriminate disposal of waste, especially across the six area councils, poses a health risk.

One Mark Esther, a shop owner in the area said other challenges of businesses include high transport fare and low customer patronage in Lugbe.

He said: “This is the road that leads to the major city that the whole community around this environment is using and it leads people coming from the expressway to town.

“For us that are living around this area, we have our businesses here, the people that often come from far away to buy goods from us no longer come,” she said.

Another resident of Lugbe,  Mr. Chikelu John, said: “If you drive from Sauka to Car Wash Bus Stop, you will observe that most of the roads are very bad and we don’t know what plans the government has for the roads and residents.

“Most of the roads in Lugbe axis have been tarred but the inner roads are not tarred. This makes them impassable, particularly during the rainy season,” he said.