Gully of devastation: It’s death, losses for Ogun community

For residents of Owakuduru community beside Epe Garage in Ijebu Ode Local Government Area of Ogun state, life as a property owner is one filled with perpetual fear as their houses continue to break and collapse like pack of cards as water from a gully charts its course deep into the communities.

For them, it has been over a decade of teeth gnashing and perpetual fear as what started as a normal surface erosion over 20 years ago has bow developed into a deep gully which has systematically cutting up the community and is bringing down homes on its way and taking lives in the process.

10 adults have been said to have died from the development with over 28 casualties recorded. And according to residents, the figure is the official one as many other deaths that are not direct have been recorded while many children have also been casualties and the statistics continue to rise.

The community leader at Owakuduru,  Alhaji Adesanwo Masika, told Nigerian Tribune that the shock of losing their homes have led to the death of many home owners, adding that he has also been a victim as he lost his 10 bedroom boys quarters to the rampaging gully.

And for the people of the community, though the trouble is much during the rainy season when the gully becomes a big river sweeping away properties, livestock and anything in its path, the dry season also has its threat as many houses just breaks up suddenly as an onset of collapse.

Indeed, no one especially the older residents knew the fate that would befall them in 1986 when diverted water from other communities started running through Owakuduru and started washing the road surfaces.

“This started in 1986 but then it was just a minor issue that only gave little discomfort of water running down the streets but the trouble started gradually in 2002 when what was a mere erosion began to become deep, eating deep into the ground and creeping further into the community; it wasn’t only getting bigger, longer and deeper, it began to take down homes in its path as it forged a way for itself, what used to be an erosion path is now a gully making us homeless and making us live in fear as no one knows what will happen next,” Alhaji Masika told Nigerian Tribune.

Their fear may not be unfounded as another resident, a middle aged woman who spoke with Nigerian Tribune and identified herself simply as Malomo stated that unlike in other communities where you sleep and expect to wake up in the morning as a home owner, you sleep in Owakuduru knowing you may wake up handicapped from a collapsed building or as a homeless person who lost part of her home or everything in the night.

According to her, the day time is not exempted as you may go out and come home to meet a house that had fallen in your absence. “Some were sleeping in the night when their buildings collapsed, leading to injuries and death. Life here is filled with expectations of the worst and fear of being a casualty anytime,” Malomo said.

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Alhaji Masika also supported the claim when he said, “many lost their homes while sleeping while many have fallen into that gully unexpectedly. We all try and work together as a community and sometimes when we notice that a house is about give way to the gully, we cut out part of it that is vulnerable but this has not helped much as it is usually a temporary relief, after cutting off, we often still lose the homes.

“The boys quarters of my house and the attached are gone and as you can see, the one-storey main building is being threatened day-by-day and this is the only house I have left on the surface of earth. You can aloso see that I am old already, my health will suffer if this house collapses, I may not survive the shock. There was a couple who we had to cut part of their house to save it from the gully but few days later, the remaining also gave way to the gully, they developed stroke and died, that is what life has become in our community,” Alhaji Masika said.

And speaking on the cause of the problem, Alhaji Masika stated that it is caused by diversion of water. “It is caused by diversion of water that led to erosion; it is just like the whole water in Ijebu Ode is diverted here, from areas like Okolurugba and Mowo Eleran, their water runs through Owokodoro community.

“This gully you are seeing here was just low-level erosion ten years ago; it was tiny and no one thought it could turn to a life-threatening menace. It was just a shallow path created by water but today, it has killed more than seven property owners while others died of hypertension when the erosion walloped their buildings,” he stated.

Speaking on the efforts made to arrest the situation, he stated that, “this issue is a big one now that needs immediate professional approach else the whole community may be wiped of when the rain comes. We have been shouting for help for years even before this became this deadly, we never kept quiet; the Osoba government saw this then and channelled it to Ondo road but subsequent governments haven’t done anything in spite of the fact that we have been calling for help though Governor Gbenga Daniel during his tenure also came to inspect but nothing was done till he left.

“Government should come to our aid before the rain will come and all houses will be wiped off, even now that there is no rain, we have no respite as houses continue to break off. We need help before this community will cease to exist.

Also speaking on efforts made by the community to arrest the situation, Pastor Kunle Fajoye, a resident of Owakuduru who is also the proprietor of Varsity Children Academy had a lot to say. The man whose school was a victim of the gully, having lost his administrative offices said there is no relevant authority that the community has not visited or petitioned in the last 10 years to no avail.

“We have visited many people, even traditional rulers to call their attention to our ordeal but nothing came out of it. We have been protesting to the Governor’s office in Abeokuta since year 2008 and series of political office holders have visited us in solidarity while many have come to inspect, yet, nothing is heard from them after the visit.

“Three different Ogun State Commissioners for Works and Environment have been here but we are still in the dilemma. We are still appealing to government to come to our aid as there is nothing we can do as a community, this is beyond us,” he stated.

At Owakuduru community, life is still a perpetual mixture of dread, apprehension and expectation of loss.

“As far as we are concerned, we have been eradicated from the map of Ogun State; we even petitioned the ecological office of in the presidency from Abuja down to this place eight years ago, the gully was not this deep and threatening then, look at my school, half of the school is gone; we are losing our investments; we didn’t build on waterways, we got government approval for this building.

“We take this reckless abandonment as a declaration of war against us by government elected to make lives meaningful to us; we are dying, ten landlords and 18 others have lost their lives in one way or the other to this miserable gully,” he said.

He appealed to the media to come to their aide, saying very expressly that the people of Owakuduru have lost hope in government. The educationist said, “you people in the media are our last hope, please have mercy on us, help us expose our suffering and ordeal to the world. The people of Owakuduru are suffering. We are being killed and most miserably, our properties are being destroyed.” Fajoye said, regretting that he was born as a Nigerian.

Though the people of Owakuduru claim their community is domiciled in Ijebu Ode Local Government Area, the council said the community is not part of their constituency. In his reaction to the Nigerian Tribune, the Executive Chairman of Ijebu Ode Local government Area, Arc. Ola Oduwole stated that he is not aware of any problem or challenges affecting the people going on in Owakuduru community, adding that you can only solve a problem that you know about.

He however added the community under discussion is not even part of his constituency. “I don’t know anything going on in that community; you can’t fix what you do not know and this is the first time I am hearing anything about a challenge facing the community.

“Also, Owakuduru is not under Ijebu Ode local government Area, it is under Yemoji Local Council Development Area, that is not under me. So I cannot say anything about this,” he stated.

Though the residents still see themselves as being part of the Ijebu Ode Local Government, they expressed the opinion that the problem they have is too big for any local government to handle. “I do not think there’s something a local government can do in this regard, it is the state government that should come around and see this as a serious problem,” one of the residents stated.