By Onyekachi Eze
It was an emotion filled plenary session yesterday, when the member representing Ikeduru State Constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly, Hon Uche Ogbuagu exhibited a high sense of empathy for his constituents, while presenting a motion at the floor of the House.
The comedian turned Lawmaker was deep down passionate, as he tabled before the House what he termed an ecological disaster if no help comes the way of his Ikeduru residents.
It was tagged, “Motion to urge the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma to cause SEMA and NEWMAP to intervene urgently and address the erosion menace ravaging some parts of Ikeduru LGA”.
He revealed that the motion was a clarion call to save the lives of his constituents from further dissertation of their homes due to erosion menace.
He asserted that Ikeduru LGA has been in a precarious situation orchestrated by gully erosion.
Trumpeta gathered from Ogbuagu that during the heat of the rainy season, his people didn’t only groan over the disaster, but also were like aliens in their own homelands.
Hon Ogbuagu told the House that not only that people deserted their homes, they relocated to neighbouring towns for shelter and safety.
According to him, both Schools and Churches were not left out in the relocation spree, courtesy of the dangerous nature of the gully erosion.
The Ikeduru mouthpiece in the State Legislature added that, out of the twenty-nine autonomous communities in Ikeduru LGA, about twenty of them are living in a gully prone areas.
While recalling the past, he regretted that if not the attempt of the impeached Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Paul Emeziem to shut up the entire Ikeduru people through his suspension that lasted for over four months, he would have brought up the motion earlier during the heavy rainy days, and for on-the-spot assessment of the affected areas.
However, he acknowledged Speaker Kennedy Ibeh for giving him the opportunity to present the ordeal of Ikeduru people.
“The gully erosion ravaging Ikeduru LGA is the mother of all ecological traumas seen any other parts of Imo State. It is pathetic to note that for one to access Ikeduru East or West, he has to go through the North. An
Ikeduru man now seeks refuge in Ahiazu Mbaise. Now that dry season has almost set in, I pray that the Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma make the people of Ikeduru to feel belonged by directing SEMA, NEWMAP, RAMP to site. Ikeduru people will remain grateful to him if he hearken to our plea”.
Prayers of the motion reads, “Whereas some Communities in keduru LGA have witnessed very devastating and aggravated kinds of gully erosion and landslides, especially at: Okwu, Owu Amakohia, Amalla Avuvu, Okpualla Amakohia, Owalla Avuvu, among others;
“Observing with great perturbation that the gully erosions and landslides have wrecked great havoc in the mentioned Communities, by cutting connecting roads, destruction of economic trees, farmlands, Schools and other social: centres and have made life in these Communities very unbearable;
“Witnessing that the untoward situations created in the Communities occasioned by the natural disaster, have caused the effected people to relocate to safe places, thereby making them refugees in their own land, with the concomitant inconveniences that go with such relocations”.
After the Members deep concern and contributions, the House presided by the Speaker, Rt. Hon Kennedy Ibeh, resolved to urge the Governor to direct the State
Emergency Management Agency to immediately intervene to alleviate the plight of the victims of the disaster in the affected Communities in the LGA.
The House also resolved to urge the Governor to synergize with NEWMAP for the purposes of adducing permanent solution to the gully erosion problems and landslide affecting the mentioned Communities in lkeduru LGA.
In another note, the Lawmakers resolved to invite the Directors of SEMA, NEWMAP and RAMP for an interface, as a means of proffering lasting solution to the menace. They are to report on November 23, 2021 at the Assembly complex.
