No fewer than 10 landlords of Akpan Eton Street, Uyo, including retirees, who relocated from their homes following a ravaging gully that washed away many buildings, have sent Save Our Souls (SOS) message to Governor Udom Emmanuel.

Located between Ikpa and Urua Ekpa roads, the street, which served as a link lane from College of Science, Afaha Oku and Atiamkpat, was populated by staff of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Coneley Cornelia College and Uyo City Polytechnic.

In the letter made available to journalists in Uyo, yesterday, the residents appealed to the governor to extend his ongoing intervention along Ikpa Road to the area.

The residents, who acknowledged Emmanuel’s humane disposition towards their plight ­– demonstrated by the ongoing ecological intervention in various parts of the state – regretted that repeated calls on previous administrations for help did not yield result.

In the letter signed by Titus Udoh and Ekong Asuquo, the community lamented that, while many buildings had already been swallowed up by the gully, many others were on the verge of caving in.

The letter reads: “Your Excellency, we use this medium to humbly appeal that you save our souls from a gully erosion, which is eating deep into our buildings, some of which had already caved in. Some of us are retired civil servants with children and our only asset is our house. Now faced with threat of being washed off at every rainy moment, you can imagine what life has become for some of us.

“It may be quite disheartening to see many Akwa Ibom families lose their homes, as we fear the entire street may not survive this rainy season. In the interim, some of us, who are badly threatened, have had to relocate our families to safe areas until the erosion and the fast-encroaching gully would have been taken care of.”

Udoh, a retiree whose fence had caved into the gully, said he decided to temporarily relocate to save his wife, who developed health complications due to the gully.

Giving insight into the erosion site, a resident, Daniel Kufre, pointed to the abandoned burrow pit by a construction company that was awarded a World Bank job in the area years ago.

He regretted that the pit, which gradually grew, with heavy flood coming into it from Urua Ekpa, later expanded, unattended to and began to swallow up buildings 15 years ago.