Opobo/Nkoro Communities Decry Erosion Menace

A Non-Governmental Organisation in Rivers State, the Opobo Progressive Association (OPA), Ndoki, in Oyigbo LGA, has cried out to the State Government to rid Opobo/Nkoro communities of erosion, which had adversely affected them in recent times.
Speaking with The Tide yesterday in Opobo Town, Chairman of the group, Senibo Simeon Jack Tolofari appealed to Governor Nyesom Wike and other stakeholders to help the area by curbing the scourge which for sometime now have displaced many inhabitants from their ancestral homes.
Tolofari stressed that with the previous erosion menace in the LGA still fresh in their memory, the communities are expressing fear of a repeat in the impending rainy season.
He, therefore, pleaded with the Governor to urgently come to the rescue of these communities before rainfall returns in full force in 2018.
He maintained that the first rainfall was a danger signal to the inhabitants of these communities, such as, Kalaibiama, Queenstown, Kalasunju, Aya-Minimah, Okpukpo, Iloma, Oloma, Epellema and Ekeregborokiri. Others are, Opobo Town and Nkoro, among others owning to their past experience in which flood submerged buildings and rendered more than 20 families homeless.
The group explained further that these communities stood on erosion path after successive administrations failed to tackle the menace which was pitiable and devastating in the area as it uprooted tress, displaced families and rendered homes inaccessible.
Tolofari also noted that once it starts raining, all the inhabitants of these communities would hang their fate in the hands of God for fear of the unknown while evacuating school children to neighbouring communities.
As he puts it, “the appeal became imperative in order to avert the dangers of erosion when rainfall, returns this year. Once the sky becomes cloudy for an eventual rainfall, the people start packing out vital properties in fear of floods. “We candidly plead with the Governor as a listening father to come to our rescue before lives and properties of inhabitants go lost.”
Tolofari added that while waiting for the Governor’s attention to the call, restive anxiety of erosion this year may cause more damages than what was experienced the previous years as the first rainfall in the LGA signalled danger as the people take their destiny in their own hands.

Bethel Toby