There is tension in a community in Abia State after a two-storey building and a four-bedroom bungalow reportedly were sucked into a gully.
The affected community is in the Bende Local Government Area of the state.
The disaster occurred after torrential rain that lasted for over 16 hours, from 4 pm on Friday to 7 am on Saturday.
The effects of the gully erosion have reportedly taken a toll on several communities in the local government area and other parts of the state, especially Amaewu, Umueze, Amamba and Uzuakoli communities.
Sunday Punch reports that the two-storey building which was swallowed by the gully on Saturday belonged to an indigene of the area living outside Nigeria, while the four-bedroom bungalow belonged to another indigene of the area who lives in the state.
It was learnt that as a result of the incident, some residents of the area now live in fear as the gully erosion site has defied several correction efforts.
The newspaper quoted the member of the Abia State House of Assembly representing Bende South State Constituency, Hon. Emmanuel Chinedu Ndubuisi, as saying the erosion site has resisted frantic efforts to control the environmental challenge.
According to the lawmaker, the most affected community has consistently made efforts to change the course of the gully site but to no avail.
“I have reached out to the NEWMAP who came and gave their expert advice, a step that has been followed but the gully still persists,” Ndubuisi said.
The lawmaker stated that more buildings in the community are under threat, adding that the community has commenced fresh palliative work following advice by the NEWMAP team to mitigate the flood impact.
According to him, the NEWMAP advised the community to construct a “drainage down to the river so that more buildings will not be threatened”.
“But I don’t know if the money available to the community now can do that,” he added.
“What we want to do now is to use sandbags to slow down the speed of the flood so that the devastation will reduce, which the engineers told us will reduce the devastation.”
Meanwhile, Ndubuisi disclosed that the member representing Bende Federal Constituency, Rep. Benjamin Kalu and the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, are both aware of the challenges of the people in the affected community, saying “only the state government has intervened through NEWMAP.”
He however noted that efforts were going on to get other agencies of the government to intervene.
But Sunday Punch reported that when it contacted Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, he said their job at the red chamber is purely legislative, but that he will send people to go and look at the site to enable him to see how he can talk to federal authorities to come to the aide of the community.
Meanwhile, Senator Kalu pointed out that such issues are within the power and jurisdiction of the state government that receives ecological funds.
On his part, Rep Benjamin Kalu said, “I have been there before to inspect the site. I have already presented the matter to the Ecological Fund Office for consideration.”
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