By Francis Ekpone
Owner of a residential building that partially collapsed after a heavy rainfall and flood at Ifite Awka, in Awka South local government area of Anambra state has re­fused to seek refuse elsewhere, insisting that ‘I cannot run away from my house’.
Orient Daily gathered that a section of bungalow belonging to Mr. Geoffrey Obi collapsed around 11 pm on Monday, draw­ing fear amongst residents in the area over the fast developing gully erosion.
Though no casualty was re­corded, occupants of nearby buildings in the area have all fled their apartments over fear of the impending collapse.

The landlord of the collapsed building, however, refused to vacate his home. Mr. Obi who hails from Oraifite in Ekwusi­go local government area of the state, told Orient Daily that the collapsing building was all that he had and that he had nowhere else to run to as he has no pres­ent means of livelihood.

He claimed that the Anambra state government abandoned him to his fate after several letters to the state ministry of environment for assistance on the gully erosion that had been threatening the building over the years.

According to him, “I have writ­ten several letters and they said it had reached the tender board. One Mr. Tony Biz from the min­istry of environment came here sometime last year and did a sketch on the area but up till today, nothing was done. I have even gone to the ministry of works but nothing was done too.

“I built this house in 2003 and since then, I have been fighting erosion due to other landlord’s carelessness of building their houses in the water channel. I did the perimeter fencing last year which caused me about N350,000 that I borrowed from somewhere.

“I would have relocated as people advised but I don’t have money. My wife died and left the burden of raising the children for me alone. I am still struggling to raise their school fees talk more of relocating to another place.

“My wife was the source of my income but she died about seven years ago. I am only doing a me­nial job now in order to sustain my children’s education. The erosion beside the building is so massive that even a community cannot face the challenge am facing here.

“I am praying the public-spir­ited individuals and the Anam­bra state government to come to my aid. I am a widower and I have children but I don’t have money. I am really in trouble and I don’t even have money to rent house elsewhere or to feed my children that are all in school” he lamented.

A resident in the area, Mr. Chidera Obika, observed that the ugly situation would contin­ue until government deals de­cisively with recalcitrant land­lords that site their buildings on water channels.
“Our experience here is quite unfortunate and it is becoming worse now because most build­ings in this area were situated on water channel.”

“Most tenants in our own building have relocated and you can see the situation of the coun­try; it is not really easy to relo­cate. We are appealing to gov­ernment to look into this issue of building on water channels so that this menace won’t continue to occur” he appealed.

https://orientdailynews.com.ng/news/owner-collapsed-building-refuses-relocate/




Lalasticlala seun myn44

Flattino again