BY VICTOR NWEGEDE
While inaugurating the project on Saturday, one of the donors, Mr Paul Velthove, said, the bridge was sponsored by Master Jaap Koert and Mrs Marline of the Relief Board of the Netherland Reformed Congregation.
Mr Velthove, with his colleagues, Mr Jan Drost and Mrs Pors Marlene, recalled that the committee on the bridge project were charged by the donors to do everything within its power to complete the project without delay when it was awarded in 2019.
He commended the committee for having kept the directive of the donors, and said, the bridge was constructed for the promotion of humanitarian services in the area.
Recall that the donors from the Netherland before the inauguration of the bridge had earlier inspected its ongoing housing projects for the survivors of the attack by marauding Fulani herders in Nduobashi, Ekpufu and Odoke Ndiegu Ishieke villages.
They also had disbursed palliatives to the affected victims of the herdsmen attack, with boreholes drilled for them in the said villages, respectively.
Further, the Chairman of the Committee members in charge of the Housing Project in the affected community, Rev Nicodemus Udeh said their assignment has reached 60 per cent completion.
According to him, "Netherland Relief Board is an organisation under the Reformed Church in Netherland, which is very ready and willing to assist in a place where a similar incidence occurred.
"As far as the community people continue to assist us this way, we will continue to assist them.
"We will continue to write, ask and strongly believe they will continue to assist us.
"The housing project has reached 60 per cent completion, the reason why we can't say it has reached 100 per cent completion is that some people thought it was a fake promise, and they didn't do their part, like the moulding of the blocks.
"You could see when went around, in some homes, we finished the blocks already moulded and we are waiting for them.
"The cement is there, the sand is there, the zinc is there, the iron is there and it's just a little contribution to mould the blocks.
"We assure the people that the housing project even though the cost of building materials is increasing, will be completed."
Udeh, the Principal of John Calvin Secondary School, Ophiauka, maintained that the fund raised by the Netherland Relief Board has to be used judiciously for the project and for what it was meant, expressing the readiness of the organisation to continue to assist the community when the need arises, while warning against using fraudulent ways to seek intervention from the
"The only thing I can stop them is fraudulent misuse of the money because the fund is meant to be used judiciously and if it's used for what it is meant, the sky will be their starting point.
"If the people are judiciously using it, like today, I saw the boreholes were locked, and they are not to be locked up. Leave it open for 24 hours, and if they need more we can ask for more and more will be drilled for them.
"This in many ways, we can say it's positive and negative. Positive in the sense, all the people who have genuine cases, their issues will be tackled and addressed, it will be ratified and helped, and if not, it will be dead on arrival," he said.
The community stakeholders including the Traditional Ruler of Ndiegu Ishieke Community II, HRH Eze Fidelis Idenyi Agbo, the National President of Ndiegu Ishieke Community Development Union - Comrade Clement Nwego, member of the traditional ruler's cabinet, Mr Jephtha Nwebonyi, the Youth President - Godwin Raju, Agnes Ikpozu, Chinyere Onweshi, among other speakers while welcoming the donors of the projects said the event was significant as it allowed them to solidify the partnership between their community and the Nigeria Reformed Church with its partners.
The community through the Development Union President represented by Mr Stephen Epete said its people were abandoned and neglected over the years without any indices of survival in the area.
Comrade Nwego noted that "there is no road network, schools, hospitals except few constructed by the Church, especially the Nigeria Reformed Church or through the community effort but your activities have shown us hope."
He added: "As if the above problems were not enough, there was yet another disaster on 30th May 2021 when herdsmen attacked our villages of Nduobashi, Ekpufu and Odoke killing several helpless victims in the process. Thank God for the Health Centres at Onuenyim run by the Nigeria Reformed Church and other good spirited individuals from outside and within the community.
"We acknowledge the several donations in terms of cash be materials so far given to our people at those dark moments in our community."
The President appreciated the donors for their several interventions especially the construction and inauguration of the Odoke-Nduobashi bridge and equally asked for the assistance of the Netherland Relief Board to construct the Okpokwu Bridge, which in his words, had remained a major stumbling block to the religious and economic development of the area, adding that many lives have been lost in the river and missionary work at the other side of the river paralyzed.
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