How erosion cut off 20 Enugu communities

Right now, the devastating erosion which followed the downpour, has left the affected communities “completely cut off from the rest of the world”, according to one indigene who lamented the tragedy that occurred in Awgu and the Oji-River local government areas. The areas have been “totally disconnected” from their neighbours as a result of the […]

Right now, the devastating erosion which followed the downpour, has left the affected communities “completely cut off from the rest of the world”, according to one indigene who lamented the tragedy that occurred in Awgu and the Oji-River local government areas.

The areas have been “totally disconnected” from their neighbours as a result of the destructive erosion which forced a major portion of the Awgu/Achi/Oji-River federal road to collapse like the Biblical walls of Jericho.

Some of the affected communities include Obeagu, Nenwe-nta, Nkwe, Awgu-nta, Achi, Mgbidi, Oji, Ezere, Awgu Nta, Mmaku, Oji-River; even people traveling to or from Onitsha are cut off because there is no way a vehiclecan pass that road in its present condition.

Following the total collapse of the Egu-Agbo Ifitte Mmaku end of the road after the heavy rainfall, life in the area has become very uncomfortable for the natives.

“Life in the area now is very, very pathetic because the link between Awgu Local Government and the Oji River Council Area has been cut off. The economic activities have been crippled. Like my village, Ifite Mmaku; that particular place where the devastation occurred is called Egu-Agbo-Ifite Mmaku; the people there cannot go to their farms or bring back their farm produce,” a native, Mr. Jude Orji told Sunday Trust in an exclusive chat.

According to him, “the people coming from Onitsha, Enugu and other places can no longer transact businesses. That road links everybody living within Orji River and Awgu local government. If you are coming from Port Harcourt, Abia, Owerri; when you alight at Aki-na-Ukwa junction, you use that road to access the different communities, and about 20 communities have been cut off.”

“For example, that particular road also links the areas with Anambra. Now, if you want to go to Onitsha from that area, you have to drive through the express, reach Orji before proceeding, instead of driving through Mmaku, Achi, Oji and then you enter Awka, Ugwuoba. It is the shortest road. The area has boundary with Awka, Anambra at Ugwuoba. So it has put the people in a very difficult position. The cost of transportation has been increased,” Sunday Trust was told.

Our reporter was informed that contract for the rehabilitation of the road was awarded to a local construction firm. It was also gathered that the rehabilitation work was said to have been attracted by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and the immediate past member of Reps who represented the area in the Lower House of the National Assembly, K.G.B Oguakwa, as constituency project. But sadly, the constituents have not heard from the representatives since the project has been abandoned.

Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime, has not yet visited the site and not quite elaborate nor was he specific on issues about the road when he made comments on it last week during a media interaction at the Government House, Enugu.

“You know already there is a contract on that road; what we do is to, may be, well, not may be; all we are working towards is to ensure that there is a variation to take care of whatever may happen to that road; variation of the contract to include taking action to correct or to remedy whatever that happened there. So we won’t leave it; we won’t leave that road that way even though it’s being done by the federal government. But we will certainly make sure that that road is done,” Chime said point-blank, when asked the position of government on the matter.

Built by the Colonialists in the 1950s, the road was rehabilited last during the administration of former Governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo. But it was learnt that the past administration in Enugu state used to “reflect the road project in the state budget and on some occasions claimed it was done,” according to Mr Jude Orji.

Since the place has been made completely impassable, the economic activities in the areas and lives of the natives also have been paralysed.

Mrs Nwakego Obasi, a farmer from the area, said what happened was similar to an earthquake. “The thing is just like an earthquake and it is very risky for anyone to attempt passing there. We have not been going to market because the road has been cut into two,” she said.

She called for urgent government intervention expressing fears that the situation may worsen if nothing is done fast.

Also reacting to the disaster, Mr Frank Aniebonam, a commercial motorcyclist popularly known as (Okada) rider from Mmaku said, “we are not happy about what happened to our road. For long, the people in government have been promising to construct a new road for us but nothing has happened all these years until the recent intervention by the deputy senate president.”

He called on the government to come to the aide of the people and alleviate their suffering.

A civil servant, Mrs. Njideka Ugwu, said the disaster is affecting the people seriously. “Since this thing happened, nobody could pass through here. Movement has been hampered and the rural women are suffering because they cannot go to the market,” she told Sunday Trust, adding, “Last Oye market, which was a day after this thing happened, so many people cried at the market because there was no way to transfer goods to the market.” She made a passionate appeal for urgent government intervention to save the people from further agony and frustration.

“Government should come and assist the people here because we are suffering; can you imagine that someone who wants to go to Onitsha or Oji-River has to go all the way through Enugu while this is the shortest route?”

Mr Chinedu Achi, a driver from Achi in Oji-River Local government area said, “This road is not good and the contractors working on it started from the Oji-River end and have not done much especially in this area.”

He added, “with what has happened, we have no alternative route now going to Achi from Awgu. What happens is that when we get here, I drop my passengers and they look for a way to cross because this is now the end of the road. That is what we have been doing since Friday last week and we are waiting for government to come and save us this untold hardship.”

According to him, “we are begging government to come as a matter of urgency; what has happened here is a big disaster and it requires immediate action from government.”

Sunday Trust was told that naturally the area in question is prone to landslide. “In 1994, landslide cut a village, Okwulofia, Ifite-Mmaku entirely from the other parts of the town. The landslide repeated in 2004 or thereabout and even then, government in its White Paper (as we read in the dailies then), claimed that they were going to relocate the Okwulofia people but around 2006, the people there only saw few blankets and some dozens of zinc brought to them. The affected people were not relocated; they are still living there and you cannot access them,” recalled Orji pitifully.

He added, “town called Ugwueme was devastated by landslide which buried many economic crops and trees with large scale farm lands. And we are yet to see what government is going to do. The Awgu area needs serious government attention.”

Orji called on government to either re-award the contract for the road construction to a more competent firm or probe the current company handling the project. “The most urgent request from the people is that government should either re-award the contract to a capable firm that will be able to rehabilitate the road. Secondly, the government should probe the company believed to be handling it to find out the cause of delay,” he said.

He added, “what people in the areas are passing through now; is just like going round and round…a distance of a mile for you to cross just a section, but you are now travelling up to 60 kilometres to reach your destination. You have your goods but you cannot go to market; you have your farm produce but you can’t move out of the area with them. So, you can see the psychological trauma the people are passing through and then the fear of the cracks stretching over one kilometre…the fear that it may sink if you try to walk through it.”