By Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Dave Umahi, has ordered residents of No 12 and 14 Orifite Street, Abakaliki, to relocate from the two three-storey buildings they are occupying to escape the looming collapse of the two buildings.
The two buildings became source of worry following Saturday’s heavy down pour which pulled down their fences and rendered the houses weak.
Accessing the level of damage done by the flood which emanated from the heavy down pour, Governor Umahi ordered immediate evacuation of the occupants within five days.
He said, “First of all we sympathize with you. Whatever we know we can do to assist you, we will do that. But let me give you a warning because your lives are very important to us. These two buildings can collapse any moment from now, these buildings are very dangerous.
‘‘So if I were you, I will start thinking of what to do. The buildings are very weak. The Commissioner for Environment has to bring the owners to see me tomorrow by 1pm. But I want you to look at it critically and know what I have said especially with the rain coming and the problem of flood we cannot solve it overnight and with the way the buildings are, you have sewage underground, it puts the lives of the members of these two buildings at danger.
“We are directing immediate evacuation of occupants of these two buildings and Commissioner for Environment must go through the town and locate buildings that are like this. The lives of the people are very important, I feel so sad for what has happened in Ebonyi with the rain but most of them are inflicted by us.
‘‘We build along the drainage lines, we cultivate on the river line, we use our fence to block everywhere and the masses are suffering’’, he said.
He attributed the cause of the flood to the encroachment into the popular Azuiyiokwu River in the metropolis.
“The major source of these problems are coming from the Azuiyiokwu river. There are so much encroachments at Azuiyiokwu River.
“I have ordered the revocation of the property here with effective from Monday. I don’t know the owner but they said he is Chinedu Ogah.
‘‘The Commissioner for Land should acquire the land and I want you to follow what I have said and then the Ministry of Environment should move in immediately to expand the course of the river.
“This is critical and it is the major cause of the damages that we have experienced in the city now. So this must happened because the fence of the land was built almost at the river bank and this is unacceptable,’’ Umahi stated.