Residents flee as 2 houses collapse in Imo

The devastation created by last Tuesday’s landslide in Akwakuma area of Owerri North LGA of Imo State continued on Sunday as torrential rains wreaked more havoc in the area.

Two more houses have collapsed as a result of the landslide at Trinity Street bringing the number of houses that submerged to four.

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Our correspondent who on Monday visited the scene observed that 80 per cent of the residents had fled their homes on the advice of officials from the Ministry of Environment and NEMA.

The chairman of the works committee of the neighbourhood, Chigozie Nnanna, told our correspondent that the landslide started in 2017 and that all correspondences to the state government had not been attended to.

One of the trapped victims, Mr. Emma Ogu, a journalist and lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic Nekede, told our reporter that he only managed to move his family members through the bush after breaking a wall on Friday.

The Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Iyke Njoku, who visited the area with some of the governor’s aides and government consultant on the erosion project, told families of those directly affected to relocate temporarily, adding that work was about to commence in the area to check the situation.