Due to the threat of a deep gully approaching on their doorsteps, over ten landlords and renters on Akpan Eton Street in Akwa Ibom State’s Uyo Local Government Area have abandoned their homes.
Numerous homes have reportedly already calved in as a result of the encroachment, it was learned.
In a Save Our Souls letter, the locals asked Governor Udom Emmanuel to intervene further in the neighborhood.
The locals bemoaned the fact that past governments’ repeated requests for assistance had been ineffective.
The people bemoaned the fact that many buildings were on the verge of collapsing while others had already been swallowed up by the gully, according to the letter that was signed by Mr. Titus Jerome Udoh and Hon. Ekong Archibong Asuquo.
“We want to use this medium to humbly appeal that you please save our souls from a gully erosion which is eaten deep into our buildings, some of which had already caved in”
“Your Excellency, some of us are retired Civil Servants with children and our only asset is our house, now faced with threat of being washed off at every rainy moment. You can imagine what life has become for some of us”.
“It may quite disheartening to see many Akwa Ibom families lose their homes, as we fear the entire street may not survive this rainy season”
“In the interim, some of us who are badly threatened have had to relocate our families to safe areas until the erosion and the fast encroaching gully would have been taken care of”. The letter read in part.
Mr. Udoh, a retiree whose fence fell into the gully in 2021, claimed he made the decision to temporarily move in order to preserve his wife, who had become ill as a result of the circumstance.
Mr. Kufre Daniel, a different resident of the neighborhood, revealed that the place was dug out as a borrow pit and afterwards abandoned by a construction company that was given the work some time ago.
Daniel grieved that the pit, which increased over time as large floods from Urua Ekpa entered it, eventually grew, went unchecked, and started to swallow up structures about 15 years ago.
Additionally, he related tragic incidents involving people who perished nearby, including one local who unintentionally fell into a gully while attempting to escape some wild dogs in the neighborhood.
He praised the ongoing intervention work on Ikpa Road but expressed concern that the water gushing out of the region might still be a hazard to the main Ikpa Road because it would keep flooding the area if it wasn’t properly diverted.
“The state government is sinking so much on the ongoing intervention works on Ikpa Road, but we may still have to battle with gullies if the volume of water coming in from Urua Ekpa through the gully at Akpan Eton, down to Atiamkpat and empties into the ravine by Nabor Street is not properly channeled.
“This proper channeling is very important because the entire right-hand side of Ikpa Road from the University of Uyo is bordered by a ravine that must not be allowed to cross into the other side of the road, therefore every issue of flood, gullies, poorly terminated gutters and the rest need to be duly addressed to save both sides of the road from future collapse,” he said
