Iyase calls for more development in Asaba

The Iyase of Asaba, Chief Patrick Onyeobi, has called for more development in Asaba, particularly in the area of intra-city roads, as the people of Asaba mark the annual Ine festival.Onyeobi, former Secretary of the defunct Bendel State government said in Asaba, that during the rainy season, most roads were impassable.He appealed to the state government to utilise the coming dry season to give the capital city a facelift in the area of road development.The Iyase noted that the people of Asaba were conscious of their position as the host community to the seat of government and as such had continued to provide a conducive environment of peace to enable successive governments to function.He said that the expectation of the people of the area was that the state government would develop Asaba as a capital worthy of oil-rich Delta.Onyeobi, however, said that the people of Asaba appreciated the state government's efforts for providing a functional airport in the locality.He appealed to the youths of Asaba to allow all inhabitants of the community free access to watch the Ine festival without molestation as the festival was a celebration of life and not an occasion for violence.The Iyase of Asaba also added that the Ine festival represented the Asaba people's effort to avoid the total eclipse of their traditions and cultural heritage in the face of Western cultural influence.``Asaba people realise and appreciate the fact that a people without culture are dead, as culture is the totality of a people's existence,'' he said.It was gathered that the Ine festival was celebrated last Monday as the last of the traditional festivals of the Asaba people. It is usually celebrated about four weeks after the new yam festival.The festival usually commemorates the end of a traditional year, as well as the beginning of another farming year.It enables the Asaba warriors (Ogbus) and able bodied men to show off their military prowess, demonstrate their readiness to defend Asaba and to thank God and their ancestral gods for preserving their lives.
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