FOR residents of Uyo metropolis, especially Afaha Oku, IBB Avenue, Itam Junction, Udo Udoma, Uyo Village Road, Nduetong Oku, Urua Ekpa, Eka Street and other adjoining areas, life has become a miserable adventure.
This so because as the rainy season sets in, they would have no option than to devise means to contain the ravaging flood water that has devastated their environments for years.
Most houses in the worst affected areas of Urua Ekpa, Afaha Oku and others have been submerged, forcing owners to abandon the properties and relocate.
For instance, the erosion problem has created deep ravines and gullies that threatened houses and schools including part of the University of Uyo (Town Campus) and the Cornelia Connelly College (CCC), at Afaha Oku, a prominent Secondary school, which Governor Udom Emmanuel’s wife is a proud alumnus.
The checks by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the ravine had eaten closer to the university area and the CCC, which, if urgent intervention is not taken, parts of the buildings could cave-in.
“The major part of Afaha Oku and the Uyo village road area has been designed as government reserve area, precluding individuals from erecting structures because the soil texture badly affected by erosion could not sustain any structure”, notes Effiong Akpan, a Town Planning Officer in Uyo.
According to him, this contributed to the collapse of the Reigners Bible Church located on Uyo village road, Afaha Oku, on December 10, 2016, in which scores were killed and Governor Emmanuel, his Commissioners and some of his Aides, who were in the Church, narrowly escaped death.
Narrating their ordeals, Emmanuel Etim, a local resident, blamed the problem on human errors caused by construction firm, JVL Construction Company hired by the World Bank in 2005, to make some quick intervention.
“JVL was engaged by the World Bank in 2005 to intervene in some affected areas including Udo Usanga, Ekpene Ntan, Akpan Eton, down to Urua Ekpa, but shoddy job done by the company aggravated the problem”, he explained.
“Unfortunately, the company did not only abandon the project, but opened up a deep tunnel that channeled enough water to the area and created a deep gully that threatened buildings in our community”, he added.
Also, it was gathered the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), reawarded the job to another contractor, the work was, again abandoned, leaving the residents to consider the option of relocating.
In Eka Street, the deep ravine stretching from the Uyo Villge road to the back of University of Uyo, had eaten a greater portion of the area and badly damaged the road before government intervention to reclaim the road.
Currently, heavy duty trucks have been banned from plying the Eka Street road leading up to Ikot Ekpene Road, but residents say the truck drivers would not heed the warning.
“Heavy duty trucks including cows trailers and gasoline trucks ply this road especially late into the night, the ignored the warning that this road cannot carry such heavy weight vehicles”, Patrick Antigha, a resident of Eka Street told Nigerian Tribune.
The deep ravine, it was gathered; aside the threat it pose to buildings, play host to armed robbers, petty thieves, kidnappers and cultists, who use the ravine as their hide out.
“Many bad boys live inside the ravine and come at night to steal and dragged uninformed girls into the gully and raped them in turns”, Effiong Asanga, another residents said.
“Most times you hear the cry of somebody being dispossessed of phone, handbag, or cash late in the night. Sometimes occasional gunshots could be heard, and the place also provides a safe haven for kidnappers to hide their victims and negotiate for ransom”, he said.
When Nigerian Tribune spoke to the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Donald Awunah, on the matter, he was quick to explain that “the Police has no equipment to storm the ravine”.
Worried by the development, the Village Head-elect of Afaha Oku, Chief Felix Eyo, has appealed to the State government, that is currently tackling erosion problems along Edet Akpan Avenue, the IBB Avenue and Brook Street, to “extend the same gesture to Afaha Oku and its environs”.
and then