More than 10 days of relentless rainfall turned a quiet Calabar community into a disaster zone. In Ikot Awatim, a landslide buried four siblings as they slept, leaving their parents and three surviving children to confront grief. RICHARD NDOMA writes that the tragedy reflects the growing devastation floods have unleashed across Cross River State.
For more than 10 days, relentless rainfall battered parts of Calabar, leaving flooded roads, damaged homes and displaced families in its wake. But nowhere was the devastation more painful than in Ikot Awatim community in Calabar Municipality, where a flood-triggered landslide buried the home of security guard Ubong Kingsley Edu, killing four of his seven children as they slept.
The victims — Bright Kingsley Edu, 18; Godswill Kingsley Edu, 14; Richard Kingsley Edu, 12; and Daniel Kingsley Edu, 9 — were trapped when the earth collapsed on their family home following days of heavy rainfall.
By dawn, the family’s modest residence had been reduced to rubble, leaving their parents and three surviving children to grapple with the loss of four siblings in a single night.
The tragedy, which also claimed two other lives and destroyed homes in Ikot Awatim and other flood-prone communities across Calabar Municipality and Calabar South, including Mayne Avenue, Ekpo Abasi and MCC Junction, has raised concerns over erosion, drainage challenges and flood-control measures in the state.
For Edu, an indigene of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and an employee of Earth Summit Security Services, life changed forever in the early hours of that tragic morning.
While he was away on night duty, his phone rang repeatedly. It was his son, Isaac.
“Dad, please come home,” the voice on the other end said.
Edu rushed home to meet a crowd gathered around the remains of his building. A landslide triggered by days of rainfall had collapsed the house while his children were asleep.
Fighting back tears, he described his children as respectful, hardworking and full of dreams.
“They were everything to me. I sacrificed everything to give them a future. Not everything a man loves, he can protect. They were obedient, promising children and I invested every kobo I earned to raise them,” he said.
Bright, the eldest of the deceased children, had completed her Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination and hoped to study Nursing at the university after improving her results and performing well in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Godswill, a Junior Secondary School Two (JSS2) student, often told his father he wanted to become a university lecturer.
Richard, a primary school pupil, dreamed of becoming a lawyer. His father said he was always seen reading his notebooks after returning from school, showing his determination to achieve his ambition.
Daniel, the youngest of the four siblings, wanted to become a civil engineer.
For Edu, the pain of losing four children in one incident remains difficult to comprehend.
“I never imagined I would bury four of my children in one day. Their dreams died with them, and there is nothing that can replace them,” he said.
According to Edu, the youths worked tirelessly until they recovered his children from the rubble.
“The youths dug the ground with shovels, hoes and diggers to pull my children from the rubble. My heart is filled with pain and grief,” he said.
The children trapped inside the building were five in number, but one of them, Imaobong Kingsley, survived. Her survival offered a moment of relief to my wife and I, amid a tragedy that had already claimed four lives.
