They said the Yendi - Saboba Road, which was the main access road to Saboba, was deplorable and always got flooded whenever it rained, leaving communities cut off from the main town thereby affecting their business activities.

They made the appeal on Monday at a town hall meeting at Saboba organized by the Ministry of Information in partnership with the Saboba District Assembly, to engage citizens on the government’s flagship programmes and projects undertaken in the country.

It was attended by assembly members, chiefs and people of the area amongst other stakeholders.   Some of the residents also called on government to review the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme by getting a reasonable cut-off point for students to enter SHS to promote academic excellence.

They also suggested that by-laws be enacted to stop indiscriminate disposable of waste and also ensuring the building of toilet facilities in homes to help stop open defaecation in the District.  Mr George Kitinya Bingrini, District Chief Executive for Saboba, said this year, under the Planting for Food and Jobs, the Assembly supported 1,808 farmers with 700 (45kg mini bags) of maize seeds, 4000(45kg mini bags) of rice, 100 (454kg mini bags) of soybeans as well as 17,150 (343 booklets) of NPK fertilizers, and 7,600 (152 booklets) of Urea.

 Mr Bingrini said through the Free SHS programme the District had recorded an increase of 1,018 student enrolment in the three SHSs in the District. He said the Assembly had also reroofed six schools that had their roofs ripped off as a result of a rainstorm as well as constructed three unit classroom blocks with ancillary facilities at Biwaldo and Sanguli to address the infrastructure needs of the schools with critical classrooms deficits.

 He said through government's efforts to tackle youth unemployment, the District had recruited 52 teaching and 29 non-teaching staff, 60 people under the Youth Afforestation Programme , 32 Community Police under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and 326 people under the Zoomlion sanitation model.

 Mr Bingrini said 103 out of the 252 communities in the District had achieved open defaecation free status, adding that the Assembly was working to improve the situation. He urged the people of the District to support the Assembly by regularly cooperating with the district revenue mobilization team to raise enough revenue to undertake development projects in the District.

 Mr Abdul-Razak Tahiru, District Chief Executive for Chereponi, who spoke on behalf of the Northern Regional Minister, encouraged farmers to take advantage of the Planting for Food and Jobs to increase production to help develop the District.