By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja
Imo Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has said the state would need as much as N75 billion to tackle the perennial erosion crisis bedeviling it.
The Governor gave this estimate while addressing State House Correspondents on Friday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Governor said the state government had identified some 360 erosion sites out of which 57 had been studied and considered critical and needing immediate attention.
He however said his State, and not even the Federal Government, could shoulder the burden of solving the problem alone, calling on international humanitarian agencies and donor bodies to come to the aid of the state in tackling the problem.
He said he had narrated the crisis that the erosion problem had become in the state to Buhari, adding the President had pledged his commitment to getting a solution to the immediately critical sites in the state by directing the Ecological Fund Office to do the needful.
“The meeting went very well and it’s just a normal courtesy call on the President and then to make few requests from him.
“Prominent among the requests I made is that of erosion menace that has bedeviled the state to the extent that the only road that we grow through to the Federal University of Technology and the Federal College of Technology in Owerri, is almost cut into two and it’s so critical that now schools are about to resume and if nothing is done urgently, they may not have access to their various schools.
“So the President in his wisdom has also promised to immediately get in touch with the Ecological Fund Office to remedy the situation,” he said.
