Despite Over ₦625 Million Monthly Allocation & Rich in Coal, Ankpa LGA in Kogi State Battles Darkness, Abandoned Hospital, Deadly Erosion, Daily Hardship Whie Council Chair Focuses on Arresting Citizens

Secrets Reporters

In the communities of Ankpa Local Government Area in Kogi State, the official figures from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) paint a picture of substantial monthly inflows. The lived experience of residents tells a far grimmer story of neglect, danger and quiet desperation. As if that is not terrible enough, the local government chairman, Ademu Muhammed Yahaya, has shifted focus from governing the people to oppressing them with arrest.

According to the FAAC distribution for June 2025 (shared in July 2025), Ankpa LGA received a net statutory allocation of ₦286.03 million. When exchange gain, Electronic Money Transfer Levy, the share of the ₦100 billion non-oil revenue augmentation, Value Added Tax and other components are included, the council’s total net allocation for the month reached approximately ₦625.53 million. Its Ecology Fund share alone stood at nearly ₦9.88 million. These transfers form part of the regular monthly releases that flow to Nigeria’s 774 local government councils.

Yet in Ankpa, the evidence of that money is often missing from the places it is meant to transform.

The Ankpa Zonal Hospital, once a key health facility for the area, has been described by residents and interveners as abandoned for several years and left in a “deplorable condition.”

Effective healthcare delivery became so difficult that families routinely travelled long distances to access basic medical services. The facility’s decay drew public attention after the death of an indigene, Muhammed Kabir from Ojokwu, prompting private-sector intervention in early 2026. A company partnered with a local development association to renovate the hospital and build a new medical ward, with work expected to restore functionality. Until then, the hospital stood as a stark symbol of institutional neglect.

Primary health centres across Kogi State, including those serving Ankpa communities, face similar problems: chronic understaffing, shortage of drugs, broken equipment, unreliable power and inadequate space. Doctors rarely visit many rural centres; complicated cases are referred to distant general hospitals. Patients, including pregnant women and children, often buy drugs at high prices or go without. Residents of eastern Kogi senatorial district have long complained of poor power supply compounding these failures.

Infrastructure failures compound the health crisis. In Olufofo community, a deepening gully erosion has destroyed homes, farmlands, roads and critical infrastructure estimated at ₦60 to 70 million. The erosion has split the road linking Olufofo to other settlements, claimed lives, shut down businesses for more than a decade and forced residents into long detours to reach schools, health centres, markets and clean water. Electricity poles have been destroyed, leaving parts of the community in darkness. Local leaders say the last meaningful government intervention occurred more than 17 years earlier, and even then no proper drainage channels were built. Self-help fundraising by residents has proved insufficient against the scale of the disaster.

The major federal highway linking Anyigba-Ankpa-Otukpa has also suffered severe degradation. Heavy-duty trucks hauling coal from Ankpa’s mining communities have accelerated the collapse of a road originally built in the 1980s. Sections around Ajobe have been described as a “road to hell,” with journeys that should take 45 minutes stretching to nearly three hours. FERMA began emergency repairs in late 2024 after repeated complaints from road users.

Mining itself has brought fresh tragedy. On or about 14 July 2026, a ground failure and landslide in Alufele, Enjema District of Ankpa, trapped artisanal miners and caused trucks to sink into pits, killing 20 workers and injuring others. Senators later highlighted the unsafe room-and-pillar methods used by informal operators and the absence of structural reinforcement, contracts, insurance or basic safety standards in the Ankpa coal block.

Insecurity adds another layer of suffering. Studies and reports on Ankpa point to high poverty, unemployment, herder-farmer clashes, banditry, cultism and political rivalry as drivers of violence. Villages have faced attacks, kidnappings and disruption of farming and commerce. Residents describe a climate of fear that restricts movement and economic activity.

Against its backdrop of prolonged darkness, one individual has stepped forward with personal resources to bring light to Ankpa. Businessman and philanthropist Idris Kashim Hussein, popularly known as Idris HK, has been spearheading efforts to restore electricity to the area after years of total blackout. Ankpa, a coal-rich commercial hub, had remained without public power supply for over a year by mid-2025, crippling businesses, healthcare and daily life after the collapse of the 33kV line from Otukpo and subsequent failed alternatives.

Recent state interventions under the Governor Usman Ododo administration, particularly the large ACReSAL-supported erosion control and internal road projects involving kilometres of drainage, and culverts, have been welcomed by local leaders as the biggest government works in the area’s history. Yet these efforts sit against a backdrop of years of accumulated neglect: an abandoned zonal hospital, unchecked gully erosion that has swallowed livelihoods, collapsed federal roads, deadly informal mining, and primary health facilities that fail the most vulnerable.

Following the Supreme Court judgment affirming local government financial autonomy and subsequent implementation in Kogi State, Ankpa is widely believed to enjoy direct access to its allocations without state interference. The Kogi chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has publicly affirmed that council chairmen in the state discharge their duties independently, with allocations and internally generated revenue left intact. Yet this autonomy has not translated into visible improvements for ordinary residents. Instead, critics argue that the focus of the local government leadership has often shifted toward control and the suppression of dissent.

In the midst of these challenges, an Ankpa-based activist identified as Tony Tony was arrested following a protest over the deplorable condition of roads and other public infrastructure in Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State. Reports circulating online indicate that Tony embarked on what was described as a peaceful protest at Ankpa roundabout on Friday, August 7, 2026, drawing attention to poor roads, inadequate healthcare facilities, lack of reliable water supply and other challenges facing residents. Tony was taken into custody after the protest by the police, on the order of the local government chairman, with sources confirming to SecretsReporters that he was assaulted during the arrest.

Tony said to be in the police custody with bruises

Residents and observers have linked the action to directives associated with the local government chairman’s office, framing it as part of a broader pattern in which criticism of the council’s performance is met with intimidation rather than engagement.

For ordinary people in Ankpa, the mother who travels hours for antenatal care, the farmer whose land has been claimed by erosion, the family that lost a relative in a mining pit, the monthly FAAC figures remain distant. What is immediate is the daily calculation of risk, cost and survival.

Until the hundreds of millions allocated each month translate into functional hospitals, safe roads, controlled erosion and basic security, the gap between the ledger and the lived reality will continue to define life in Ankpa Local Government Area.