By Etatsemi Onoriode
Sapele residents living at Ugbeyiyi have cried out to all tiers of Governments including Federal and the Delta State ministry of environment to urgently come to their aid before they are consumed by the heavy flood that has ravaged the area in recent times.
A cross section of the residents who bared their minds with journalists, lamented that in recent times, alleged that what they never experienced in terms of flooding in previous years has now visited them when their neigbhour, one Chief Charles Obule acquired a vast land behind their settlement.
Mr Chuks Umuna, a welder and Mrs Grace Imoni another landlord in the area explained that prior to the time when Chief Obule acquired the land behind the settlement situated along Ugbeyiyi road, Government in her wisdom constructed a convert in the area which channels all the waters in the area via the land acquired by Chief Obule down the main canal,to the River.
The duo explained further that as soon as Chief Obule acquired the land, he went on to fenced every available space and water channels from the main convert on Ugbeyiyi road linking the canal down to the river on the other side of the Chief’s compound.
They added that this sad development has caused untold hardship to every landlords in the affected area since Their homes have been submerged and all effort they made in the past to appeal to Chief Obule to open up the fence to allow water to flow down its natural causes has never yielded any result.
They argued that ” when you buy a land, you should not buy natural water ways thereby putting the lives of others at stake, , but first consider the safety of others too. As we speak, the same convert along the road close to Chief Obule house, channels water from the road into our homes and he is comfortable with this,”
At the time of filing this report, all attempt at reaching Chief Obule to get his own side of the story on phone was not successful .