Residents have staged protest in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State over the inability of the council chairman to provide basic amenities.
To drive home their demands, the protesters seized the official speedboat belonging to the council chairman, Mr Julius Takeme.
Vowing to sustain the protest until the council addressed their demands, they lamented that many residents had died due to the poor state of healthcare in the area, while the council boss remained unconcerned.
The action was part of an ongoing protest over the deplorable state of the council’s only government hospital and the general neglect of infrastructure at the LGA headquarters.
The protesting residents accused the chairman of poor performance and failure to fix the LGA’s sole hospital, which they said lacked basic amenities.
“There are no doctors, no nurses and no drugs. People are dying daily in Burutu because we don’t have a functional hospital.
“Many residents have died due to the lack of drugs and water despite huge allocation,” a resident lamented.
The demonstrators also decried the lack of potable water, electricity and other basic amenities at the council headquarters.
The protesters expressed frustration that, despite the huge budgetary allocation to Burutu LGA, the situation at the headquarters was worse than in the individual villages that make up the council.
“We have received billions, yet Burutu town has no light, no water, no hospital. Our villages are even better than the headquarters,” a demonstrator stated.
“We will not back down until the needful is done. We need doctors, nurses, drugs and water for our people,” he declared.
The residents called on the Delta State Government to intervene urgently to prevent a further breakdown of law and order in the LGA.
Efforts to get a reaction from the chairman’s office were unsuccessful, but an aide confirmed that the chairman might be waiting for a directive from Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.