Speaking with SaharaReporters in Igbo during the protest, the Vice President of Umuchima autonomous community, Mr. Chimezie Ugochukwu, said, “We gathered here today crying because in Umuchima, the road that leads from Orlu to Akaokwa in Ideato nation, there is a very big gully.
The residents of Umuchima Community in the Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo State on Friday staged a peaceful protest, lamenting that the gully erosion ravaging the community has rendered many of them homeless.
According to them, many houses have been destroyed.
The protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions including “Gully erosion, Umuchima is homeless in Ideato South, Imo State,” “We are refugees in our state. We lost our houses and other properties to gully erosion,” “Gully erosion: families rendered homeless in Umuchima, Ideato South, Imo State. Presidency, take note,” and “We are homeless. Pray for us. We lost houses and other properties.”
The protesters, who also had a large poster of various photos showing the eroded community, destroyed houses and roads, said they had written to the state government several times for urgent intervention but despite their outcry for help, Governor Hope Uzodimma’s administration had not taken any action to come to their rescue.
Speaking with SaharaReporters in Igbo during the protest, the Vice President of Umuchima autonomous community, Mr. Chimezie Ugochukwu, said, “We gathered here today crying because in Umuchima, the road that leads from Orlu to Akaokwa in Ideato nation, there is a very big gully.
“Since 2021, Umuchima community and the entire Ideato South have been writing to the government, both the state and the federal governments. The federal house and the Senate.
“We have taken our complaint to the Ecological department in Abuja concerning the problem in Umuchima but despite all our cries all this while, the government did not come to our aid.
“More than 50 buildings have been destroyed. The community cannot handle it again. That is why we came out, let the government come to our aid.
“This is behind KO Mbadiwe University. We are here for the government to see that we no longer have where we live. Our properties have been destroyed. Let the federal and state government help us and fix this erosion to save us.”
Mrs. Mary Nwakata, another protester, tearfully shared that she has lost her home to the devastating erosion, leaving her and her children without a place to live, and are now stranded and displaced.
“Even now, I don’t have a house. As I’m talking to you now, including my shop and my husband’s shop. As I am now, my children and I are stranded. We don’t know what to do or where to go. Erosion has washed everything, and that place is our last hope,” she said.
“I don’t have any hope again. The government should please help us,” an aged woman who also joined the protest lamented.
Also, one of the protesters and the Secretary General of Umuchima Community, Mabaoma Uche, said that the community has written several letters to Ikenga Ugochinyere, who is a member representing Ideato Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives to present to the House of Reps, “but since then, we don’t know what is happening. He has never told us what is happening about the letters we wrote”.
He said, “We have also written to the former House of Representatives member, Micheal Obi, but nothing has happened. We have also informed the former Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha. We have written to other notable people but nothing has happened.”
He further lamented, “Erosion has carried our people away. More than 20 houses have been submerged in the gully erosion. We have lost more than five persons, both children and adults. Our worries and pain now is that with the rainfall going on, in the next one week, we might no longer have a place at all.”