In a video which showed the present situation of the facility and obtained by SaharaReporters on Thursday, it was discovered that nobody was using the local government facility and it is presently serving as a hideout for criminals and for mentally challenged people.
The multi-million naira secretariat built for the Ibaji Local Government Area in Onyedega community, Kogi State, has been left abandoned for five years, top officials confirmed to SaharaReporters.
In a video which showed the present situation of the facility and obtained by SaharaReporters on Thursday, it was discovered that nobody was using the local government facility and it is presently serving as a hideout for criminals and for mentally challenged people.
SaharaReporters had earlier reported how the facility was turned into a rice farm due to years of inactivity.
Residents who sent videos to SaharaReporters had stated that the LGA officials were responsible for the rice farming as well as the Divisional Police Officer of Onyedega division.
According to the narrators in the new video, the officials abandoned the facility and stopped using it for their administrative functions.
“Nobody is coming to this place again. Look at how it is. They have turned it into farms. The facility was built during former Governor Idris Wadda administration. Mad people are now sleeping there,” one of the narrators said in the video.
The structure had been abandoned for over years due to the bad road connecting the community and seasonal floods.
Workers who spoke with SaharaReporters in 2021 had said the then LGA Chairman was operating from Idah LGA, a neighbouring community which is about two-hour drive away.
“Youths during a political riot in 201 burnt down the old secretariat, but the government built a new one around 2014. But the secretariat has been abandoned since then.
“We have a liaison office in Idah LGA and that is where the LGA chairman operates from. There is no activity in this place. It is both deserted and overgrown with weeds. Our people are stressed having to go to faraway Idah because they can have any contact with their LGA office,” one of the workers had noted.
SaharaReporters learnt that the Ibaji Progressive Youth Foundation (IPYF), one of the foremost groups representing the people, had written a protest letter to the LGA Chairman, demanding that he operates from their community and feels their pains.
The letter titled, “Demand to Relocate Ibaji Liaison office back to Ibaji LGA Headquarters – Onyedega,” had been signed by the IPYF National President, Comrade Apeh Kelvin and the General Secretary, Linus Egwu.