RAYMOND OZOJI reports
No fewer than 50 houses maybe destroyed in Ugama village Obosi Idemili-North Local Government Area of Anambra State following a landslide which occurred after a heavy downpour in the area.
Although no lives were lost and no house was destroyed during the landslide but the catastrophic situation required that if urgent remedial actions were not taken by government to control it, the entire Ugama village maybe submerged and consumed by the raging erosion devastations.
The Ugama village catastrophic erosion menace which came barely 24 hours after a menacing flood swept the palace of the traditional ruler of Ogidi kingdom Igwe Alex Onyido also in Idemili-North council area of the state, has forced occupants of buildings in Ugama village Obosi to flee from their houses for fear of avoidable disasters.
A visit by this journalist to the erosion site at Ugama village Obosi, revealed that apart from the houses that may be destroyed by the erosion, Union Secondary School Obosi would also be destroyed because it is already being threatened by the disaster.
Speaking on the disaster, President-General of Obosi Development Union (ODU) Barr. Chimezie Obi, said that the landslide didn't occur within days rather it happened within few hours and according to him, the magnitude of the erosion devastations required immediate government intervention to forestall further escalations.
The PG stressed that the landslide may affect the entire Anwusi-Ugama quarters in Obosi, if it keeps escalating. He said people living around the area could not sleep in their houses as they all fled to save themselves from untimely deaths.
He noted that an indigene of the area whose building was affected by the erosion had to brake the fence of his house to escape from the disaster because the front of his gate was already captured by the landslide.
Although the PG commended the state commissioner for works Arch. Okey Ezeobi, the Idemili-North Local Government Chairman Hon. Stanley Chigbo Nkwoka, councilor of Obosi ward as well as the representative of Eze Obosi for the on-the-spot assessment of the situation, but emphasized the dire need for actions to be taken to save the community from imminent total collapse.
He told this journalist that the Ugama village erosion menace was one out of the many devastating erosion sites and flooding issues in Obosi community. According to him, Owelle Aja in Obosi urban, Achaputa and some other places in Obosi are usually flooded over blocked drainages even as he appealed to government to help construct massive drainage systems to control flooding.
Another indigene of Ugama village whose mansion is also being threatened by the landslide and who identified himself as Engr. Eric Nnamdi Anyamene, an Abuja-based engineer, told this journalist that his building is threatened by the erosion but his major concern is the people of Obosi community.
Anyamene said he was not worried about his house being destroyed by erosion but worried that the life of an individual lost can not be replaced.
Anyamene who also confirmed that the works commissioner, the Idemili-North Mayor, Eze Obosi palace representative, the PG and some other government officials have carried out on-the-spot environmental impact assessment of the erosion devastations, maintained that the presence of the government officials in the area meant that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is aware of their predicaments and would help to ameliorate the situation.
He however disclosed that they are working on an interim solution to the erosion menace while they wait for the federal, state governments and donor agencies to come to their rescue and save Ugama village from impending doom !
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