Erosion sacks 20 families in Abeokuta

…Residents send SOS to SIA government

NIGERIA: EROSION has rendered more than 20 families homeless in Olomowewe area of Abule Oloni in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, just as the community called on government to come to their aid.
GatewayMail gathered that the incident had forced many of the victims to relocate for their safety, after losing large number of their properties to the flood.
The Chairman of Abule Oloni community, Chief Lasisi Shamusideen, lamented that the persistent erosion problem had destroyed roads and residents’ properties.

He raised the alarm that their lives are now in danger, particularly if the government should fail to provide them urgent assistance.

Similarly, a victim of the flood disaster, Rev. Joseph Adeyanju of the King of Joy Church of Christ, claimed that the problem of erosion had been traced to the blockage of channel by the Neuro-Psychiatric and Sacred Heart Hospital in Lantoro as the health institution allegedly diverted its waste water through their annex.
Adeyanju also said that they had been suffering from erosion for over five years, and had reported the menace to the commissioners for Environment, and Works and Infrastructure, adding that the local government chairman in charge of the area was also notified but that none of them came to their aids.
He stated that in 2009, the erosion swept away a student of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) at Olomowewe Street, an incident that was reported to the government, and still nothing was done about the menace.
Also in an interview with GatewayMail, the Secretary of the community, Mr. Ayinde Lister, said that several media organisations had reported on the erosion problem many times, but the authority had remained non-challant to their plight.
Lister lamented that the erosion had demolished many shops which had caused unemployment and disrupted business activities in the community.

He explained that at a point in time, the community took their plight to the Governor’s office but they were disallowed from seeing the Governor to lay their problem before him.
A resident, who is also a victim, Mrs. Adebimpe Morakinyo, said that she had spent over N2 million since she has been living in the community in the last 36 years.

Despite the effort, she said, the erosion problem had remained unsolved.
Morakinyo pleaded with the government to come to the community’s rescue, stressing that residents can’t tell what would happen to their community in the next raining season. “Government needs to do something before the erosion erase the whole community,” he said.

• By Olabamiji Oluwatobi