The five villages in Musaga clan council in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to come and rescue them from the gully erosion that cuts across the clan, raging havoc for over 20 years.
The people made the call while speaking to journalists about what they are facing in the area.
They decried what some of them described as a democratic injustice, rejection and abandonment by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Governors Donald Duke, Liyel Imoke and Benedict Ayade’s administrations and the local government area.
Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune on the situation of things in the communities and the gully erosion control, the head of the clan, Chief Paul Effiong Essien, lamented that despite the participatiom of the clan in the democratic process since 1999, they had been rejected and abandoned.
He explained that successive administrations both from the federal, state and local governments had only made empty premises to tackle the erosion disaster that had splitter the clan into two sites, destroyed houses, caused self exile, building collapse, landslide, pollution, flooding and environmental degradation in the area.
“Right from the government of President Obasanjo and Donald Duke, when the gully was still small, that was when we started calling for assistance. Eventually, both the federal and state governments could not help us, Donald Duke handed over to Senator Imoke, the same thing happened, only promises were made. We had several talks with government officials yet nothing was done as regard the gully. When Imoke wanted to leave office, about six months before his tenure, the then local government chairman invited me and other chiefs, but in the long run everything was politicised.
“Also, Imoke handed over to Governor Ayade, since 2015, we have not been answered. And in less than 15 months time, Governor Ayade will be leaving office. Our entire community has been abandoned. No drainage control, no good erosion strategies, no efforts put in place to control the gully erosion. We are in agony. People have been placed in a difficult state and no one cares. We want the gully to be eliminated. We want government’s intervention in all areas of social amenities,” Essien said.
and then