|
|
Nigeria: Landslide Wreaks Havoc in Adamawa
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Daily Champion (Lagos)
14 October 2007
Posted to the web 15 October 2007
Lagos
Residents of Sili town in Guyuk local government area of Adamawa State, are now living in fear following a major landslide which destroyed their farmlands at the weekend.
The land slide, according to the residents of the village, last occurred in 1964 but produced less impact than the one of this year.
Fear of the unknown has forced the elders of the community to seek solutions through supernatural means even as they attribute the natural occurrence to some anger visited on them by some gods and their ancestors
Sunday Champion gathered that while some are consulting their oracles as to know what to appease their gods with, christian and muslim religious leaders have also offered prayers in churches and mosques for forgiveness of sins that may have led 'God' visiting his anger on them.
But Dr. Paul Michaullum, a Geographer and one time Minister in the Second Republic in the area, described the occurrence as a potential disaster waiting to happen and appealed to the Federal Government to quickly intervene.
"It is not an earthquake but more of a sign of slide because as you can see, this place is made up of very high mountains and deep valleys. But a comprehensive study of the problem will help us understand the kind of danger or otherwise of the people's continuous stay here", Michaullum said.
He called for a comprehensive analysis of factor responsible for the occurrence to determine the suitability of their continuous stay in the area or relocate the people to a safer place
Sunday Champion gathered that this year's occurrence destroyed farmlands while millions of Naira worth of produce went under the ground as a result of the land slide.
"Those of us who witnessed the 1964 landslide are deeply shocked at the impact of the disaster this year. Our forefathers witnessed a similar occurrence in the past but none can be compared to this year's and we fear that the future ones may be more devastating", he said.
The Caretaker Committee Chair person of Guyuk Local government, Mrs Wilbina Jackson, who spoke to Sunday Champion on the issue, also appealed for immediate intervention from the Federal Government to ameliorate the suffering of the displaced farmers whose crops were destroyed.
She noted that although no life was lost many were injured during the land slide which devastated the community and most their farms were destroyed and crops lost in the disaster.
|
The state Commissioner for Special Duties, Chief Medan Teneke also appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), to come to the aid of the community by providing relief materials for them.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
