•Parts of the Digital Bridge Institute almost raised by fire

By Ikechukwu Odu

The Digital Bridge Institute, Enugu, completed many years ago has been abandoned and at the mercy of bush fire.

It took the timely intervention of Enugu State Fire Service to save the facility from the inferno which has already raised down the security gate and was heading towards the structure on Friday.

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The Institute, a branch of National Communications Commission, NCC, was built to offer Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs trainings and in the process bridge the knowledge-gap in the ever-changing world of digital technologies for the South-east states and Nigerians at large.

However, since completion, no serious effort has been made by the Federal Government to put the facility into use.

At Ibagwa-Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State where the Institute is lying fallow, there is palpable fear that it would be consumed by bush fire as the facility and its surroundings have been overgrown by gigantic grasses.

Concerned residents who expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the Institute also confirmed to South East Voice that hoodlums have vandalized the transformer installed in it.

A civil servant, Peter Odo, who raised the alarm on the need to clear the Institute of bushes said that if the bush fire had started in the night, it would have raised down the structure before the state’s fire service would come to its rescue, considering the harmattan.

Another source who pleaded for anonymity disclosed that a suspected vandal was caught and currently being tried in the court.

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He further said that effort should be made to clear the site and save it from the looming destruction even as he added that if the facility is put into use, it would provide the needed knowledge-base in ICTs and provoke a robust innovation and creativity among the South-east states and Nigeria at large.

Vanguard