Flood destroys poultry farm, property worth millions of naira

Ini Billie, Uyo

Floodwater has destroyed farms and property of Akwa Ibom State residents in the Eket local government area.

After a heavy downpour within the week, flood water overtook Udok Street, Udofa Street, Essien Imoh Street, Idua Road, and Almighty Road, Eket, leaving many business owners stranded and damaging household property.

One of the victims, a poultry farmer, Mrs Gift Udia, who resides at Udok Street in Eket, said she lost over 500 birds to the heavy downpour that occurred on Tuesday, May 20.

Udiar revealed that she woke up early in the morning after the heavy rain to check her poultry farm with the intention to vaccinate the birds before giving them feed to eat, only to find out they were all dead.

“I woke up and decided to go and check my birds at around six in the morning on Tuesday. I removed the plastics to give the birds the vaccine because I have to wash the plastics and dry them for an hour before giving the birds the vaccine.

“I went to the poultry and discovered that the flood water had destroyed the fence of the poultry farm, entered the farm and killed all the birds.

“The whole brood of about 500 chicks died due to heavy downpour that occurred for several hours in the morning,” she lamented.

Udia, a mother of four, said she relied on the farm to fend for her family and pay her children’s school fees as her husband was out of work. She added that she borrowed money from a cooperative to buy the birds.

She appealed to the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), as well as the Federal and State Governments, to come to her aid and cushion the impact of the loss.

“The state government should please help me because the poultry farm is what my family uses to feed their household.

“I also used gains from the poultry farm to pay my children’s school fees because my husband is not working.

“I collected the money from osusu (contribution) and for now I don’t have hope to pay the money back to the owners,” she lamented.

Another victim, Mr Daniel Inyang, a resident of Udok Street, said the flood submerged his house, destroying property worth millions of naira.

He said the adjoining streets from his house were all flooded, and household items and foodstuffs were soaked in the water.

“Household belongings like foams, beds, radio, television, chairs and tables, foodstuffs and kitchen utensils were all soaked in the flood,” he said.

Inyang, who attributed the flood to blocked gutters around the area, urged residents to stop throwing refuse into the gutters.

He also called on the state government to mitigate the impact of the flood in the area, saying another rainfall might worsen their already precarious situation, and on the Local Government to build bigger drainage systems in the city that can contain the volume of rainwater.

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, recently encouraged citizens to regularly desilt drainages, gutters and other water channels within their vicinity to forestall flood and other ecological disasters.

Eno warned against the practice of indiscriminate refuse disposal and blockage of drainage with refuse, and tasked the people to be proactive in environmental cleanliness.

Recently, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), ranked Akwa Ibom as one of the states to be heavily impacted by the deluge of rains, and warned that the state would record the highest number of rainy days in 2025, ranging from 250 to 290 days, with an attendant risk of flooding and spread of cholera.