…As villagers cry out to Soludo to intervene

By Vincent Ujumadu

The worrisome gully erosion devastating most communities in Anambra State has heightened at Amakor village, Orumba North local government area, with the people crying out to Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene immediately to save them from the activities of sand miners.

Leaders of the village under the aegis of Amakor Njikoka Development Union, in a statement signed by its chairman and secretary, Mr. Ilo Obinna Daniel and Mr. Patrick Okole respectively, accused the traditional ruler and president general of Nanka community, Igwe Godwin Ezilo and Rev. Canon. Ifeanyi Ezeike of being behind the excavation of sand in the village, which had rendered many families in the area homeless.

Recall that Governor Soludo had earlier in the year banned sand excavation in Anambra State following the discovery that it is fueling the gully erosion menace in most communities in the state.

According to the people of Amakor, the destruction of their environment through sand mining by the traditional ruler of their town is part of the marginalization Amakor has been facing in the hands of the leadership of Nanka leaders.

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Their statement read in part: “We have earlier mounted a gate on the road leading to our village, but the gate was primarily dismantled to facilitate the illegal sand mining going on every night at the Amakor section of Agulu-Nanka-Oko Erosion site.

“It took the mature intervention of the village chairman – Mr. Obinna llo to calm down the highly provoked people of Amakor when the gates were being destroyed. The illegal sand miners then had uncontrolled accesses to the already devastated stream beach.

“They have even gone as far as creating a parallel leadership in Amakor, using some people who are loyal to them, so that they can be causing environmental hazard to us through illegal sand mining.

“We therefore call on the governor of Anambra State, His Excellency, Charles Chukwuma Soludo to come to our rescue by setting up an independent panel or commission of inquiry to look into our complaints with a view to enforcing the law and protecting the rights of the weak in the society.”

They alleged that  their marginalization by the leaders of Nanka had assumed a dangerous dimension, adding that they have even been barred from producing the traditional prime minister of the community which is rightfully their turn.

However, in his reaction, the President General of Nanka, Mr Ifeanyi Ezeike who spoke on behalf of himself and the monarch, said he had received reports that the illegal sand excavators usually come from the neighbouring Oko community.

“I have called the President General of Oko community to investigate and stop his people from coming here. The Amakor leadership is playing politics by including my name as the one mining their sand,” Ezeike said.