Monarch Seeks FG, Otu’s Intervention In Akai Effa Gully Erosion Menace

Gully erosion ravaging Akai Effa community in Calabar Municipality local government area of Cross River State has worsened, prompting the village head, HRH Henrietta Effa-Akpere, to cry to the federal government, Governor Bassey Otu and the member representing Calabar South/Akpabuyo/Bakassi Federal Constituency, Hon. Joseph Bassey, for urgent intervention.

The monarch, who spoke yesterday in Calabar after leading community elders to inspect two critical erosion sites, said the disaster which began over five years ago has assumed a frightening dimension due to recent heavy downpour threatening to cut off the community.

“It has been there, we have been reporting, even right from when NEWMAP was there. We reported, they came here and did inspection. It has taken over four years, or five years that the gully fingers began. Unknown to us that the heavy rainfall was going to aggravate the matter,” she said.

She lamented that the worsening gullies have already wreaked havoc in the community, with flooding about three weeks ago destroying fish farms, poultry farms and other investments worth over N100 million belonging to residents.

“Some people that have fish and poultry farms lost their fishes due to heavy rainfall. The rain wiped all their produce that worth over N100 millions. Among those who lost their farms to flooding include Surilaco, Dr. Henry Onwe and others,” she stated, adding that many victims now have nowhere to stay.
“As I speak, a lot of the victims have nothing to eat or where to stay because erosion has threatened their homes,” she said.

While appealing to the Federal Government and Governor Otu to join hands to save the community from extinction, the monarch specifically called on Hon. Joseph Bassey whom she described as a son of the soil, to return home and rescue his people before more lives are lost.

“My cry is that the federal government should join hands with the state government, so that they can rescue these people. Because anytime, if the rain continues like that, many lives may go,” she warned. “The reps member Joseph Bassey otherwise known as ‘Papa’ is my son. He is living in this community. He knows most of those problems. Please, if there is any way they can talk to him, that he should come back to the house. That the home is on fire. The lawmaker should come and help Akai Effa,” she appealed.