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By Chukwudi Abiandu, Asaba.

ADONTE, Delta State — In a searing open letter to Delta State Governor Rt. Hon. Elder Sheriff Oborevwiri, the President General of the Adonte Community Development Union, in Aniocha South Local Government Area, Mr. Collins Okofu, has laid bare the “unimaginable” economic and humanitarian crisis gripping his agrarian community, driven entirely by the decades-long neglect of the Ogwashi-Uku/Adonte Road.

The letter, obtained by our newsroom, praises the governor’s broader development strides but swiftly pivots to a desperate warning: Adonte is being cut off from its own local government headquarters at Ogwashi-Uku, and a reckless plan is afoot to force residents to use a secondary, civil-war-era back route through Nsukwa-Umute instead of rehabilitating the primary, topographically easier road.

“Instead of giving consideration to the primary and appropriate route to Adonte… there is an unimaginable plan that Adonte people should access their community from the back,” Okofu wrote. He stressed that the Ogwashi-Uku route is level ground with no rivers or need for costly bridges, making its neglect inexplicable.

The consequences, Okofu charged, are no longer just about inconvenience but survival.

SCHOOLS COLLAPSING, WOMEN DYING

The letter reveals a community in freefall. Due to the road’s “deplorable state,” no teachers or National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members accept postings to Adonte Primary and secondary schools, Okofu said, “have become a shadow of themselves.” Worse, the local health centre now records a “high mortality rate among pregnant women during delivery” because ambulances and skilled health workers cannot access the community in time.

“The economic implications of non-access to Adonte… is unimaginable,” Okofu wrote, pointing to farming settlements scattered across vast land whose produce rots without a viable link to urban markets like Ogwashi-Uku and Asaba.

A COMMUNITY’S PATIENCE EXHAUSTED

Okofu reminded the governor that Adonte has long been “peace-loving” and supportive of successive administrations. But patience snapped on January 13, 2026, when the community staged a peaceful protest at the Delta State Government House.

The protesters made clear: the only just and historically correct access is the Ogwashi-Uku/Adonte/Aba-unor link road, not the Nsukwa-Umute Road that emerged during the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s.

PROPOSED LIFELINE

In a conciliatory but firm appeal, Okofu offered two practical solutions:

1. Direct rehabilitation of the original Ogwashi-Uku-to-Adonte Road.
2. A shorter, cost-effective alternative via the Abah-Unor NDDC Road off the Ogwashi-Uku/Marri expressway, an option he backed with an attached sketch map.

“Any of the considerations will ultimately solve the problem and put a permanent smile on the faces of the indigenes,” Okofu wrote, warning that the rainy season is approaching and will soon render even the alternative routes impassable.

POLITICAL UNDERTONE

Despite the anguish, Okofu ended on a striking political note, calling the governor “Delta State’s number one choice come 2027 gubernatorial elections” and praying that “God’s infinite power continue to guide and protect the Governor.”

The letter serves as both a desperate SOS and a quiet reminder that votes and lives hang in the balance of a road.

As of press time, the Governor’s office had not issued an official response. But for Adonte’s 10,000-plus residents, silence is no longer an option.

Full text of the Adonte Community Open Letter:

ADONTE Community Development Union

THE DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF THE ADONTE/ OGWASHI-UKU ROAD:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DELTA STATE GOVERNOR.

We, the National Executive Council of the Adonte Development Union, extol the giant strides of development achieved across Delta state by His Excellency Rt. Hon Elder Francis Oboriwori Sheriff, the executive governor of Delta State.

Sir, your detribalized and equitable distribution of our state’s resources into milestone projects sensitive to the people’s needs is indeed a very clear testament of your unwavering commitment to service to God and to humanity. We the entire people of Adonte community are ultimately grateful to yourself and your executive council for graciously approving the Nsukwa, Umute Adonte road phase 1 with the belief that the 2nd phase when given and approved will get to Adonte.

Adonte community and her people are peace-loving from time immemorial and have demonstrated our support and collaborations with successive governments at all levels but we are however worried by the way we have not been carried along in the scheme of things regarding infrastructural development, especially the inaccessibility/deplorable state of our community road. This situation has led to the community staging a peaceful protest to the Delta State Government House on January 13,2026.

During our protest, sir, we drew the attention of the Delta State government to the Ogwashi-Uku/Adonte/Aba-unor link road as the primary and known access road to our community from time immemorial. lt is worrisome therefore that instead of giving consideration to the primary and appropriate route to Adonte which is from Ogwashi-Uku (our local government headquarters) to Adonte, there is an unimaginable plan that Adonte people should access their community from the back which is through Nsukwa-Umute road when we have a direct known primary road from Ogwashi-Uku to Adonte without any difficulty because its topography from Ogwashi-Uku is a level ground with no challenging features like rivers that would require bridge construction.

Sir, while we acknowledge your milestone achievements in ensuring that every community in Delta state is connected to enhance development, we believe that

prioritising economically viable roads like the Ogwashi-UkuAdonte/Aba-unor link

road will be of great value to the three farming communities and its adjoining farm settlements (camps) scattered all over the entire expanse of land, whose major challenge is moving their farm produce to urban areas like Ogwashi-Uku and Asaba at a minimal cost.

The economic implications of non-access road to Adonte and its adjoining farming settlements is unimaginable, one of which is the fast declining state of the basic education in our community in that both our primary and secondary schools have become a shadow of themselves because no teacher including the youth corpers want to be posted to our community. The same scenario is also affecting our health centre with a high mortality rate among pregnant women during delivery.

SUGGESTION.

Your Excellency sir, it has become extremely important as an agrarian community that the Delta State government should listen to our decades of outcry to the deplorable state of Ogwashi-Uku/Adonte Road which from time immemorial is our community known primary road to Adonte before the emergence of the Adonte/Nsukwa road during the Nigerian civil war in the late 60s.

Alternatively, because of cost, consideration could be given to Ogwashi-Uku/Adonte Road through the Abah-Unor NDDC road on the Ogwashi-Uku-Warri express road which is the shortest distance to Adonte as conveyed in the attached road sketch map herewith.

Sir, any of the considerations will ultimately solve the problem and put a permanent smile on the faces of the indigenes of all the communities in the area particularly this period that the raining season is gradually setting in.

Once again, a big thank you to our Delta State’s number one choice come 2027 gubernatorial elections, and may God’s infinite power continue to guide and protect the Governor, Amen.

Collins Okofu,

President General,

Adonte Community Development Union.