From Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
The Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) Lokoja and Idah on Tuesday Advocated for closer relationship between elected representatives and citizens to enhance peaceful coexistence in kogi state.
This was contained in the the sensitization message of the two commissions during a day sensitization town hall meeting organized for key community leaders and citizens held at M&G Hotel in Anyigba on Tuesday.
The sensitization meeting which was drawn form Idah, Ejule, Anyigba, Ankpa and Agaliga in kogi east senatorial district and part of JDPC Lokoja and Idah Legislative Advocacy Projects being implemented since 2016 commended some law makers for quality representation.
The project officer, Success Adejoh Sunday who delivered a key note address on behalf of the project coordinator, Rev. Fr. Augustine Okafor noted that the aim of the project was to bridge communication gap between the people and elected representatives through active constituency offices and periodic town hall meetings.
Adejo noted that the commission is out to advocate for improved access to portable water in kogi state stressing that despite the natural blessings of rivers Niger and Benue in Lokoja, access to portable water remains a great challenge in several communities.
Some of the community representatives present at the event thanked JDPC for her efforts and recounted that the advocacy project has really touched lives in the communities as it has attracted interventions of the duty bearers in their communities especially in the area of water provision.
Participants from Anyigba, however, lamented that the government owned central water facility in Anyigba is currently not working thereby subjecting the people in the area to a severe hardship to access portable water.
On sanitation, the group pointed out that the level of indiscriminate refuse dump in Anyigba community is very high and called on Dekina local government authority to take urgent steps in this direction.
The representative from Agaliga community, Mr. Francis Abuh stated that only one borehole provided by the local government council in 2019 is the only source of portable water in the community at the moment which is highly inadequate.
Representatives of Ejule, Idah and Ankpa communities, thanked their elected representatives for providing them with boreholes and promised to take steps towards the maintenance of the facilities.
