By Ifeizu Joe
The call by the senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, Senator Victor Umeh for intervention in erosion prone areas in Anambra State has received the attention of the federal government.
Umeh had in September visited some erosion ravaged parts of Anambra State, Including Obosi, Ogidi, Awka and other parts of the state to inspect devastation caused by erosion, which caused houses to cave in, while also cutting some major roads.
The senator had subsequently raised a motion about the incident on the floor of the Senate, calling on the federal government to declare Anambra Central Senatorial District an ecological disaster zone.
During a press briefing on Thursday in Awka, Senator Umeh revealed that already his call for intervention was yielding fruits as the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, through its ecological fund office has expressed their willingness to commence intervention.
Asked what he was doing to ameliorate the plight of the people in the area of erosion disaster, Umeh said: “Erosion is ravaging the South East and especially my zone, and I have visited most of the areas and have done a motion on that and the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation wrote me this week through the ecological fund office.
“They have requested for me to bring engineering drawings for the erosion and the cost of doing these jobs and that I should submit it, so that they will study it and plan their intervention.
“I have however replied them just yesterday. It is not my job as a Senator to do so, it is the ecological fund office that will procure those services and award the contract for the job to be done.
“So I have told them that they have to go and do what they should do, and that the Senate has passed a resolution that they should do ABCD, so they should go and do it. I also asked them to prepare a schedule of inspection as I am willing to come with them to the erosion site. So you can see that these are some of the works we are doing for our people,” Umeh said.
On other interventions he is undertaking for his constituents, Umeh said he has continued to run a comprehensive scholarship programme for all the seven local government areas that he represents, despite non-funding of senator’s constituency project by federal government.
He said: “For three years now, I have been consistent with our scholarship programme, and the cost runs into tens of millions and we are still continuously paying. The coming session’s fees amounts to about N75million, and these are things I put in the budget, and government has a way of delaying the funds, but for us, we must pay.”
