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Youths decry landslide threats in Imo community, plan protest

Published

5 years ago

August 19, 2021

Youths of Umuejechi Nekede autonomous community in Imo have expressed worry over the life threatening landslide that cut off the community from the state capital, Owerri.

The youth made their feelings known in a letter jointly signed by Kenneth Nkwanzema and Obijuru Ogbenna, Chairman and Secretary respectively and addressed to Imo Commissioner of Police (CP), Rabiu Hussaini, seeking police permission for a peaceful protest.

The National Daily reports that landslide cut off the road linking Nekede community to the city on July.

The community is about five kilometers away from the city and also a host to Imo state Zoological Garden and Wildlife Park.

The youth body disclosed in the letter that the community had suffered untold hardship emanating from landslide and gully erosion.

They claimed that a peaceful protest would help to draw government attention to the community, which they said had suffered from neglect from successive governments.

The letter read; “We write to notify the CP of a planned peaceful protest by youths of the ancient kingdom.

“This protest becomes necessary to draw both state and federal government’s attention to the ecological disaster that has continued to threaten the lives of our people.

“Today, landslide and gully erosion have cut off the eight communities in Nekede from the city and our faith remain unknown.

“We urge the CP to provide us adequate security to ensure that the peaceful protest was not hijacked by hoodlums.