10 years after bridge collapse, A’Ibom communities still cut off from healthcare 

 Ndiya community in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area and neighbouring communities, including Ikot Mfon, Efa, Ikot Ibok, and Iman in Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, have endured limited access to basic healthcare since the only bridge linking them collapsed about 10 years ago. PUNCH Healthwise’s investigation revealed that the collapse of the bridge has cut residents off from healthcare services and deprived many of their livelihoods. PATRICK ODEY reports

Mrs Uduak Effiong, a resident of Ndiya in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, never imagined that her children would one day be denied access to healthcare at the Primary Healthcare Centre in Ikot Mfon community, Etinan Local Government Area.

However, that became the reality after the bridge she and her children relied on to access the health facility collapsed.

“We have a primary healthcare centre across the river, but we can no longer go there whenever we are sick. I almost lost my 11-year-old son to severe malaria last year because we resorted to self-medication due to our inability to access healthcare. We eventually had to risk our lives by crossing the river before he could receive proper treatment,” she lamented.

Besides being cut off from healthcare, Effiong told PUNCH Healthwise that pregnant women in the Ndiya community have also been deprived of essential maternal healthcare since the bridge collapsed.

Without the bridge, she said, access to healthcare in the area has ground to a complete halt.

The collapse of the bridge has also crippled Effiong’s source of livelihood, leaving her family in perpetual hardship.

She owned a grocery shop in one of the market stalls, where she sold foodstuffs and household items to support her husband in caring for their five children.

“There was a big market across the bridge that held every four days,” Effiong said, pointing across the river.

“Many of our women and men earned their living there. It was the closest market to our community. You didn’t have to stress yourself; within a few minutes’ ride across the bridge, you would be there,” she added.

“I owned a shop there where I sold foodstuffs and other household items to augment the meagre salary of my husband, who is a primary school teacher,” she told our reporter.

“The business was doing well, but our problems started when the only bridge linking Ndiya with the neighbouring communities collapsed almost 10 years ago. Since then, life has never been easy again because everything has collapsed,” she lamented.

She said she has suffered emotional, economic, and physical hardship, adding that life has never been the same since she lost access to her business.

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“Life has never been easy for me again since then. I have gone through all sorts of emotional, economic, and physical hardship,” she added.

Effiong described the collapsed bridge as an economic lifeline not only for her community but for much of Akwa Ibom State.

PUNCH Healthwise gathered that the 120-metre bridge collapsed over 10 years ago and that at least three people, including schoolchildren travelling to Eket, Oron and other parts of the state, have died while attempting to cross the river since the bridge gave way.

Mrs Effiong’s case is not an isolated one. Thousands of residents from both Ndiya communities in Esit Ubium Local Government and their neighbours in Ikot Mfon, Efa, and Ikot Ibok in Etinan Local Government have suffered the misfortune of stagnated businesses, lack of access to healthcare, lost opportunities, and frustrations following the collapse of the bridge.

PUNCH Healthwise investigation revealed that access to good medical care has also suffered a setback as pregnant women who were receiving treatment at the comprehensive health care centre at Ndiya no longer attend the centre as a result of the dislocation

“Most of the pregnant women who used to come here for medical attention no longer come to receive attention; one can imagine their predicament in this kind of situation.

“Also, students of Ndiya Comprehensive Secondary School stopped coming to school, and many, including traders, got drowned in the river while trying to cross the river amid the rampaging waves,” she added.

The ancient bridge

The rail bridge, according to PUNCH Healthwise findings, was constructed during the military era, precisely during the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War, to facilitate rapid military deployment, allowing troops, tanks, and supplies to easily cross the rivers and ravines without special tools or heavy lifting equipment.

However, after the civil war, the bridge served as a vital link, connecting the various communities. The communities used the bridge to move from one place to another, thereby facilitating trade and commerce and fostering social and economic integration among the communities.

A dealer in sand business and resident of Ndiya village, Mr Godwin Okon Akpan, who spoke with our correspondent at the Riverside, described the situation faced by the communities after the collapse of the bridge as worrisome.

Akpan lamented that access to healthcare for the communities had been very challenging since the bridge collapsed.

He said he lost his thriving sand business to the collapsed bridge, as he could not afford to transport sand to neighbouring communities in Etinan Local Government, where it was mostly needed because of their marshy settlement.

“I don’t know when the bridge was constructed, but it has been a very worrisome situation since it collapsed around 2015. The bridge was the only link between our community and Ikot Nfon, Efa, and Ikot Ibok in Etinan Local Government Area. We used the bridge to transport goods and services to and from the communities.

“Our people here, particularly market women, used the bridge to access the closest market in Etinan, but since the collapse of the bridge, they have lost everything. The market itself is no longer functioning well,” Akpan said.

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“As a sand dealer, we used the bridge to transport sand to our neighbours in Etinan, who need the sand most because they live in a swampy environment, but since the bridge collapsed, it has not been easy for me,” he said.

Akpan said many lives have been lost, while many students from the neighbouring communities who were schooling at the comprehensive secondary school, Ndiya, abandoned their studies.

“We have had about three instances of where people struggling to cross have drowned in the river. About 15 lives, including students, have been lost since the bridge collapsed, and property worth millions of naira has been lost as people struggle on a daily basis to cross the river.

The collapse of the bridge has also led to a corresponding collapse in social activities and functions.

A representative of the youth leader in Ndiya village, Prince Aniekan Ibok, said communication between the people of Ndiya and Iman, the nearest community in Etinan, has been cut off due to the collapse of the bridge.

According to him, “the people here cannot access or communicate with the Iman community, which is just a stone’s throw from Ndiya, and the market there has closed down. Our people normally go there to buy and sell. So it has affected our people so much. Pregnant women who used to come here to access medical care no longer come.”

Amid the deaths and sufferings of the people, there is the concern of how to remove the collapsed bridge from the river to ease the movement of people.

The Secretary to the Ndiya village council, Prince Udeme Nkanga, described the inability to remove the collapsed bridge as the biggest impediment. He disclosed that the community, worried by the situation, had written a save-our-soul letter to the National Inland Waterways Authority to help remove the collapsed bridge.

“There have been reported cases of deaths and property damage since the bridge collapsed, but the major concern is how to remove the collapsed bridge. Our people, especially those doing business at the Riverside, came with a petition to the Village Council, requesting the council to reach out to the authorities concerned and see how to remove the collapsed bridge, so they can have free flow of movement.

“As a council, we have reached out to the National Inland Waterways Authority to help remove the collapsed bridge. Some personnel from NIWA came to us after we wrote a save-our-soul letter to them,” Nkanga said

He said, however, that the community has yet to hear from NIWA up till now despite the promise.

“In May this year, a company came with a letter from NIWA to remove the bridge. We received them wholeheartedly, but up till now, we have not heard from them again.

” We expect to see a crane by now, but up till now, we have not heard from the authorities concerned,” he lamented.

Motion without action

Our correspondent reports that disturbed by the sufferings of the people, the State House of Assembly raised the issue on the floor of the House in October 2019 through a motion by then Etinan lawmaker Barr. Aniefiok Dennis Akpan, and seconded by Barr. Otobong Bob, now House Leader.

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The matter, it was gathered, resurfaced again in July 2023 when Engr. Uduak Ekpo-Ufot, the current Etinan lawmaker, pushed for urgent repairs of the bridge. Also, it was gathered that in 2025, House Committee Chairman on Information, Jerry Anson Otu, again cited legislative motions as a tool to alert the Executive on the matter.

Our correspondent reports that despite these efforts, nothing has changed as residents remain cut off from schools, markets and health services, while the river continues to claim lives.

Appeal for help

Residents have at different times called on the state government to come to their area to construct a new bridge.

“We have made a gentle appeal to the State government, and we believe that our governor, Umo Eno, through his ARISE agenda, will not allow us to suffer for too long,” Nkanga, Secretary to the village council, said.

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