By Ehichioya Ezomon
Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo assumed office in November 2024. Since then, the Idumabi Community of Irrua Kingdom in Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo Central Senatorial District of Esanland has received his administration’s attention in terms of provision of and/or promise to provide amenities for the people.
Already installed by the government in the community are solar-powered street lights (complemented by those provided by private indigenes) on virtually all the roads/streets, such that Idumabi looks like a “small London” at night, helping to improve visibility and security. There’s a functional 200kva transformer serving two roads and their avenues.
There’s a firm commitment by the government to replace the faulty 500kva transformer (the people spent millions to repair regularly) that serves most parts of the community that’s lately without power supply for months.
(With the influx of strangers, who buy up and erect property in vacant plots – partly due to the siting of Mudiame University, Irrua (MUI), owned by a son-of-the-soil, Prof. Sunny Eboh Eromosele – the demand and need for more power supply and additional transformers have increased in the community.)
While employments have been offered to several indigenes, the government also has on its card for Idumabi a proposed Health Centre, for which a parcel of land has been donated. For these, the community people are grateful to Governor Okpebholo and his administration!
To the nexus of this article. First came the good news. Second the fear and anxiety. Third the bad news that’s assailed the people, and blunted the initial cheering news that the presence of government was taking shape at Idumabi on Okpebholo’s watch.
The unsavoury news is that devastating consequences have come with government’s provision of amenities: disruption of ways of life, destruction of property and and a possible displacement of the people from their homesteads.
On the platform of Idumabi Development Association (IDA) worldwide, Idumabi people, home and abroad, were given the assurance by their leaders that the Sen. Okpebholo government would construct, tar and drainage the roads, to arrest the flood and erosion ravaging the community.
On April 27, 2026, the Lagos branch of IDA received the good news via a video posted to its WhatsApp page, with the voice-over in pidgin English relaying a bulldozer excavating the major road from the old Ekpoma-Irrua-Uromi-Ubiaja road (being expanded into a multi-lane highway by the Okpebholo administration).
The narrator’s words: “Na Idumabi road be dis. Dey wan tar am. Dey wan tar Idumabi road. And the road is very wide, very very wide, very wide. Dis is Idumabi junction; dey wan start to dey tar di road. As you can see, e go affect every house. Like dis one now, e go affect di house also. Not di main fence, very close to di fence. You see am (road), now e wide. Na so e dey go; e go reach dea.”
Joy and happiness masked the narrator’s voice: That Idumabi road(s) was receiving attention of Edo State government, as Okpebholo promised when he campaigned for Senate for Edo Central in 2023, the Governorship he won in September 2024, and after he took office in November 2024. The six main roads have been graded, awaiting actual construction and tarring in line with the governor’s promises.
But then came the contractor – handling channelisation of floodwater caused by the reconstruction of the Ekpoma-Irrua-Uromi-Ubiaja road – digging a long, shallow open drainage that transverses the community, and will terminate at a massive burrow pit of 10 plots (1000x1000ft) of land behind inhabited buildings.
The possible threats posed by channelisation of the stormwater into Idumabi came up for serious discussions and debate at the IDA Annual General Meeting during the April 2026 Easter Convention in the community.
Most residents, who suffer from erosion and seasonal flooding, and others whose property and farmlands could be impacted by the floodwater channelisation, expressed worry that rather than alleviation, they would be subjected to further hardships.
The Meeting was told that when the contractor visited to inform about the drainage and burrow pit, the community people registered their fears and anxiety: that without an underground drainage, the floodwater could overflow the banks, and affect property, farmlands and the landscape.
Truly, the worst has happened before their very eyes in a matter of weeks. The contractor, who didn’t show any proper reports of feasibility study and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the project, nor revert to the generality of Idumabi people, embarked on the drainage, and caused havoc in the community.
The open drainage has left compounds flooded; excavated sand block entrances to buildings; and some residents, unable to access their homes, have turned squatters in neighbours’ houses. This comes amid concerns over likely water-borne diseases and displacement if the government doesn’t intervene for urgent, remedial actions.
Doesn’t this man-created flooding throw up the grading of Idumabi roads as a decoy for the drainage the contractor knew would negatively impact the community? The scenario is akin to, “What the government has given with the right hand, the contractor has taken with the left hand!”
Which raises the poser: Was the Okpebholo government aware of the contractor’s ploy to wreak devastation at Idumabi community? Whatever, Governor Okpebholo should step in before his pledge to upgrade Idumabi roads is rubbished by the drainage contractor!
It’s not by choice or design – even the community’s forebears dating back centuries couldn’t have foreseen it in the thickly-forested lands of those era – that Idumabi situates on a low plane.
Over the decades, flooding and floodwater found home in the community, causing erosion that affected roads, the expansive Community Square and farmlands. This prompted repeated calls and appeals to past Edo governments for solutions, to no avail. So, no one or institution should take undue advantage of Idumabi’s precarious situation!
Mainly with the assistance of some of its sons and daughters, and funds raised via development levies, Idumabi community has maintained the six roads leading to it from the Ekpoma-Irrua-Uromi-Ubiaja road, Irrua-Opoji road, and the road from Idumabi to Oghagbo community.
The people are not against the government siting projects, and upgrading the roads in the community, which Okpebholo has favoured so far. However, on the channelisation project, the people have some reservations, which they condense into two suggestions/requests to the government.
Can’t the administration construct an underground pit(s) in the setback/right-of-way on the Ekpoma-Irrua-Uromi-Ubiaja road at the floodwater axis at Idumabo-Uwenuje-Eguare in Irrua, and channel it therein, to save Idumabi community from a disaster(s) foretold?
Though the comparison is far-fetched due to the disparity in the scale and scope of the projects – plus the non-existence of a river or stream at Idumabi community – the government has put in place measures to mitigate the environmental problems in the localities around the construction site of the “first-of-its-kind” Ramat Park Flyover Bridge at Ikpoba Hill, Aduwawa, in Benin City, Edo’s capital city.
A recent report by John Mayaki (Post-Digital Journalist and Media Communications Expert) “on the progress reports/photos on the flyover bridge” stated that the government has embarked on “channelisation of floodwater to the Ikpoba River, through an underground drainage system routed along Obaseki Street… expected to provide lasting relief to residents and road users who have suffered years of environmental degradation and disruption caused by flooding.”
Idumabi needs a similar underground drainage system to convey the volume of stormwater destined for the community. This will prevent refuse dump in an open drainage, and enhance free flow of water, and also disasters, such as residents, mostly children, falling into the drainage during heavy downpours, and swept into the open, flooded burrow pit.
The people are prepared to cooperate and collaborate with the government and the contractor(s) handling the project, to find a suitable site for a sustainable and durable solution to the stormwater problem, to avoid disruption, displacement and evacuation from their ancestral land.
Idumabi salutes and appreciates Governor Okpebholo’s administration as the first to show physical presence in the community since the 1963 creation of Midwestern Region (Mid-Western State), later renamed Bendel State in 1976 (during Nigeria’s restructuring from 12 states to 19 states), and Delta and Edo states in 1991 when Bendel was split.
In light of ongoing developments, they appeal to the government to ensure that the channelisation of stormwater, resulting from the reconstruction of the Ekpoma-Irrua-Uromi-Ubiaja road, does not adversely affect, and make worse the flooding and erosion problems at Idumabi.
This plea is with all sense of humility and responsibility, as the people’s fears and anxiety are premised on safeguarding their lives and livelihoods, and their land and future generations of the community.
The people hope and trust that the good-spirited and kind-hearted Okpebholo won’t associate with any design, overt or covert, to destroy Idumabi he’s favourably disposed to, but to continue to share in their aspirations to live in peace and harmony with their neighbours, and under a government that protects their lives and property. Let only good news flow and flourish in Idumabi Community!
• Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357_ .
