Residents of Ado, a suburb in Nasarawa State, have urged the state government to repair the Kugwaro road, the only access road available to them.

Some residents who spoken with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado on Friday, described the state of the road as "quite disheartening".

One of the residents, Mr Ibrahim Lamidi, observed that car owners could not drive their vehicles in and around the area.

He expressed fears that with the rainy season at its peak, the road might soon be totally inaccessible.

"We are really suffering in this place; as you can see; you can hardly walk this road now.

"This is what we face everyday; the matter is worsened when it is raining, then no bike will be willing to carry you.

"We are appealing to the government to help us as we are also citizens of Nasarawa State.

"The government should also show its presence here; as a community, we have tried to make the road motorable but as the rains came, all our efforts were washed away by erosion," he said.

Another resident, Mr Tunji Goerge, said: "Ado, especially Kugwaro road, needs government's presence; most people don't even go out with their vehicles again because of the state of the road.

"When we return from work in the evening around 9 p.m. - 10 p.m., we hardly find motorbikes to convey us to our houses.

"Therefore, we have to trek at ungodly hours and in these times, anything can happen to us.

"Apart from the road, even sanitation is poor; there is no designated place for depositing refuse; so people dump their waste materials everywhere and this makes the whole environment so unsightly," he added.

Mr Alade Olaifa, a landlord in the area, affirmed that the people had organised self-help projects by filling the road and even graded it but with the arrival of the rains, all that effort had become useless.

"The people of Ado, Kugwaro Road in particular, beg the Governor, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, to put Kugwaro Road into consideration because it is also a major road that leads to other states like Kano and Kaduna.

"Construction of this road will bring more commerce and of course progress for the people of Ado in particular and Nasarawa State in general," Olaifa said.

Responding on behalf of the government, Mr Hashimu Jibrin Gurku, the Caretaker Chairman of Karu Local Government Area of the state, said that Al-Makura was pushing for the rehabilitation of all the roads in the three senatorial districts.

"The governor can feel the plight of the people and as I'm speaking to you now, the process has already started; graders are already being sent to Mararaba Gurku and when that is through, it will move to Ado.

"So I plead with the people to exercise a little patience with this government; we are working and soon the grader will get to Kugwaro Road, " Gurku said.

NAN reports that Ado, which is close to Mararaba, the commercial hub of Nasarawa State, has witnessed unprecedented population explosion in the recent past due to the ongoing demolition of illegal structure in the FCT.