Anyiin: The sad story of Benue community where vehicles are ferried on boats across river

The story of Anyiin would have been likened to that of Venice in Italy, only that unlike the later where people move about on boats in the riverine settlement, the former, a community that indigenes and visitors have to go through the horrible experience of ferrying their vehicles across river in order to get back on the road to the town.

 

Anyiin is a relatively popular town in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, best known for being the hometown of former Benue State Governor and current Senator Representing Benue North East Senatorial District, Gabriel Suswan.

 

Recently, Anyiin was the focus of the lens of every news (especially Benue), as the remains of the late Zege Iwanger-Tiv, and elder brother of former Governor, Gabriel Suswan, Chief Terkura Suswan, who was assassinated by unknown gunmen, arrived the community for burial.

 

Then came a shocker. Many were heartbreakingly stunned by the pictures surfacing online from the funeral; not because of the lifeless bodies of the Chief and his aide or the tears dripping under the eyelids of the mourners, but for the embarrassing road to a former Governor’s hometown.

 

More pathetic is the fact that all the vehicles have to halt at river Buruku to be ferried across the river before proceeding to the town of the highly reverend politician.

 

All through Benue social media space, one question kept popping up; “Suswan was Governor for eight years, why didn’t he build a bridge across the river?”

 

This led to the allegation that the former Governor was barred from constructing a bridge over river Buruku by his own people on grounds that the business of ferrying vehicles across the river was one of the major occupations in the area.

Although there is an alternative road through Katsina-Ala, Amaafu to Ugba then Anyiin, but residents say the route is very far, hence residents and visitors resorted to ferrying their vehicles across the river.

See photos of vehicles being ferried across river Buruku as exclusively obtained by IDOMA VOICE below: