Barrister Natasha Akpoti, I don’t know her, has slapped, no punched, Edo people hard on the face. Why? Edo Nose and Mouth, particularly the Okpameri people of Akoko Edo, are now enjoying her well-aimed boxing punches on the face of our very essence.
Anyone who has passed through Akoko Edo through any entrance to it would have seen the horrible state of the road network. A stretch of a kilometer after Aiyegunle OSI before Ibillo is impassable. Even a squirrel can’t cross it without sinking into quagmire. Another stretch of one kilometre between Lamkpese and Ibillo enroute Kogi and Abuja has been cut off. Vehicles sometimes get arrested and detained there for weeks, particularly trucks, lorries and such heavy haulage vehicles.
The stretch of nine kilometres between Ibillo and Imoga is a no-go area. Only legs and okadas can tortuously meander you through dangerous bush paths. If you are lucky, you don’t get kidnapped. Also, the stretch of 17 kilometres between Imoga and Okenwen in Kogi has been in tatters since creation, and another stretch of nine kilometres or more from Imoga to Ekami Kakumo, the home village of Hon. Kabir Adjoto, erstwhile Speaker of Edo House of Assembly. Let me talk about the circuitous rocky path from Igarra to Somorika, the home village of Hon. Yekini Idaye, our present House of Assembly Member.
Between Ibillo and Ebune Ikiran is another torture of a trek or ride on _okada_ . Vehicles don’t go there. And many others: the road to Atte, Sasaro, Uneme Erhunrun, etc. Akoko Edo is an abandoned zone.
Now, Lady Natasha Akpoti, the Russian-fathered and Kogi-mothered, or vice versa, Beauty and Brain has come to the rescue of Okpameri people.
Singlehanded, she mobilised caterpillars, bulldozers, rollers, trucks and work men to Ibillo to begin a concerted rehabilitation of the failed portions of the federal road through Ibillo and its failed feeder roads and paths. She has promised to grade the 30 kilometre stretch through Ibillo-Imoga to Okenwen in Kogi free of charge. She is not Edo, not Okpameri by any means. Just a sympathetic humanitarian and because his Kogi people and neighbours of the Okpameri nation use the road a lot. The Ibillo market is the largest market in the area, which feeds surrounding communities with food stuff up to northern Nigeria. Perhaps, this is the attraction. So, when people do ethnicity and tribalism, I don’t subscribe. One love, one humanity and one sympathy it is. Kindness and sympathy has no tribe. It is universal and divine.
Whatever is the motivation, Natasha Akpoti possesses a golden heart, golden beauty, an attractive physical lush and lustre covering even a more attractive and sublime soul and mind.
I hail you, Princess of Ebira nation! I hail you, true Beauty! I hail you selfless Sister and Mother! You will live long and healthy! You will rule kingdoms!
God has used you to give us a sweet slap and embarrassment. Please, madam, continue to slap us. Continue to embarrass us pleasurably. We are enjoying your slaps and harassment. Sweet harassment!
Lady Natasha Akpoti, do you know that we have great and rich people like you in the community in particular and Edo State in general? We have a Governor, the Wake and See Governor, let me not mention the President, a great leader indeed! We have Representatives in the hallowed chambers of legislation at he State and Federal levels. We have an ex-while Speaker of the State House of Assembly. He is warming up to go to the House of Representative. He is very rich, having spent twelve years in the State House of Assembly. Do you think he could not have done what you are doing now? I wish I could ask him why he looked away while his people suffer.
Lady Natasha, we also have a young man Representative in the National Assembly. He passes that road o. He knows. What he did was to contribute how much did I hear now, was it 100,000 naira to rehabilitate the road? Those who know should correct me. Hmmn, it is well! 🙄🤷🏽♂️
We have a Senator for Edo North with all they get for constituency projects. Billions! Hmmn! It is well. May they live forever!
Great Beauty-of-the-Face -and-Heart, do you know that Ibillo, Imoga and the Okpameri people have millionaires at home and abroad? Every day, Victor Arogunyo, I myself and some others cry and cry and for our people and for assistance. They behave like they are dumb and deaf. As you post request for assistance on a platform, they post you jokes and prayers in the name of Allah and Jesus. Yet, they spend millions on holidays in Dubai, the Caribbean, Canada, etc. They buy properties all over the world and can spend billions on personal pleasure for one second while torture and lack kill their people. They buy cars for their mistresses, build houses for their illicit sex partners while small-small poverty kill their people. Yet they will still die and be buried in a tiny grave, as every one will.
‘A good woman who can find?’ We have found you a good woman. A good woman is more beautiful and more valuable than diamond!
May your womanhood never disappoint you!
_Bode Steve Ekundayo_
