Governor Charles Soludo has urged the federal government to intervene urgently and fix the collapsed portion of the Oba axis of the Onitsha-Owerri expressway.

Christian Aburime, the governor’s press secretary, said Mr Soludo made the call when he visited the failed portion of the road that had been cut off due to massive gully erosion activity.

The governor, represented by Earnest Ezeajughi, his chief of staff, said the state government was acting on an emergency basis because it could not wait for the Federal government’s response.

He said Anambra was grappling with over 1,000 active gully erosion sites and that the one on the Onitsha-Owerri highway was one of the numerous sites begging for immediate attention.

“We are appealing to the federal government to quickly intervene and save this road from total collapse,” Mr Ezeajughi said.

Ifeanyi Okomma, the commissioner for works, described the erosion as huge and mentioned that the government of Anambra had stopped further progression of the damage through its palliative intervention.

“We have achieved the first objective. The second objective is to stop further erosion slide as we await the Federal government,” Mr Okomma said.

The commissioner for environment, Felix Odimegwu, stated that erosion was an existential threat in the state and called for increased ecological funding.

He said the Anambra government had been carrying out palliatives to check the damage done by gully erosion and called for Federal assistance.

(NAN)