Etim Ekpimah
Three children on Sunday escaped death by the whiskers in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, following a landslide which swallowed a kitchen and split Asutan Street into two.
It was learnt that the children aged 9, 6, and 5 years old, had barely left the kitchen after preparing their evening meals when the earth tremored and split the ground.
Speaking with our correspondent in Uyo on Monday, the landlord of the affected property, Francis Ikpe, said the incident was devastating, adding that the children escape was miraculous.
He said: “It was a devastating experience. Three children were preparing their meals in the kitchen. After they left the kitchen, it was not even up to five minutes, when the kitchen collapsed.
“The children were eating when suddenly there was a bang; the kitchen and everything inside it was buried. They would have been trapped safe for God’s mercy on them.”
According to Ikpe, the community has been living with the erosion for the past 30 years, noting that the dimension was not as disastrous as it turned out to be now.
Ikpe noted that the problem becomes serious when the state government decided to embark on street repairs and construction of drainages, adding water from six adjoining streets was channelled to the area without constructing a chamber to receive the volume of water.
“I am the landlord at 16, Asutan Street, the compound that had been badly threatened by the erosion. We have lived with the erosion for more than 30 years; the dimension was not as disastrous as it is now.
“But when the state government decided to embark on massive streets repairs and drainages, water from six adjoining streets, including those of Barracks Road, have been diverted to the area without a chamber constructed to receive the water.
“A lot of damage has been caused to that place. Whenever it rains, the volume of water increases and this has been posing threats to lives and property,” he said.
He called on the state government to intervene before the house is completely swallowed by the rampaging slide.
On relocation order by the state government, Ikpe said: “I just heard that a surveyor came here and addressed the people some time ago. He brought a document purported to have been written by the state government in 2011, but no landlord has ever seen that document; there is no indication that any of the landlords acknowledged receipt of the document.”
He said if the state government was serious of relocating the people, they (the landlords) have no other options to accede to the order.
A car dealer and tenant, whose kitchen was swallowed in the slide, one Mohammed Umaru, said he went out to Okoita, on Sunday when he received a call that his house has been swallowed.
He said: “Yesterday (Sunday) I travelled to Okoita, where I heard a call by the landlord that the house has collapsed. I rushed back and what I saw was terrible. What we need now is help. Let government do something. I’m helpless.”
The state commissioner of Environment and Petroleum Resources, Charles Udoh, who paid an unscheduled visit to the erosion site assured residents of government’s commitments, adding that government is doing everything possible to mitigate the impact of erosion in the state.
He called on the Federal Government, the Ecological Fund, and the World Bank to assist the state in tackling the problem and stressed that the state government alone cannot effectively control the erosion sites in the state.
“We need assistance from the World Bank, the Ecological Fund and the FG to be able to deal with the problem. The state government alone cannot do this. Everyone has a responsibility,” he said.
He disclosed that his ministry is going to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment of all mm projects in the state to ensure that problems like this do not reoccur.