Gully erosion is threatening to sack seven communities in Odeda local government area of Ogun State.
To this end, the residents of the communities sent an SOS to the Federal government and the Ogun state governments to save them from the looming disaster.
They made the appeal on Monday during a protest in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
The communities are: Araromi Ilugun-Itoko, Victory Estate Ilugun Itoko, Surulere Ilugun Itoko, Peaceland Ilugun Itoko, Ilugun Central, Sunshine Estate and Abata CDA.
The residents lamented that they have been under the threat of being destroyed by landslides due to erosion.
The residents were armed with placards with various inscriptions such as: “Araromi Ilugun-Itoko CDA needs assistance of government from gully erosion”, “Residents of Araromi Ilugun-Itoko needs the government help”, “Governor Abiodun save our soul from gully erosion” and “We cannot access our houses because of gully erosion”.
Addressing journalists during the protest, the Chairman of Araromi Ilugun-Itoko Community Development Association (CDA), Okuneye Alaba Ezekiel said the gully erosion is threatening to swallow their houses which they laboured to build many years ago.
According to him, the erosion has destroyed the only access road leading to the communities thereby cutting off hundreds of residents from accessing their houses.
He said the gullies created by the aggressive erosion wreaking havoc in the communities have forced some landlords and residents to flee based on fears their houses might soon collapse.
He appealed to the government to construct drainages and bridge to properly channel the volume of water coming into the communities.
Okuneye said, “The gully erosion is sacking houses in our communities. It started in June this year and it has caused a very serious disaster in our community.
“The volume of the water that is coming to Araromi Ilugun-Itoko CDA has resulted to gully erosion that the community does not have the capacity to handle.
“We are calling on the state government and particularly the federal government, through the ministry of environment to come to our rescue because another rainy season should start there will serious problem in this area.
“We have about seven communities accessing this road and the gully erosion has destroyed the road, people can no longer drive to their houses even to trek to their various houses is a serious challenge as a result of the gully erosion.
“We are calling on the government to come to our rescue because if another rainy should set in about 50 houses will be affected and seven communities will also be affected.
“Before now, we have been appealing to government to come to our rescue, but our voice has not been heard yet.
“We want the government to help us to construct drainage that will channel the water into a nearby river down the community. It has to be a very big drainage looking at the havoc that the caused, but if that is not done a greater disaster looms.
“We have invited the representatives of Odeda local government area to this place, they came and took pictures and recorded the erosion site, but everybody knows that the capacity of local government to dabble into this kind of thing wip be an herculean task but they are the closest government to us they should help us channel our requests to the appropriate government agencies.”
