@Alempega & @Allen-jones

You know that idiotic tribalist like this commonsense or nonsense is an enemy of Nigeria. Can anyone say that those who planted the Abuja bombs had conscience? @ commonsense, you are rotten to the core, dog!

TO the people of the remote Mkomon District of about 10 villages in the Kwande Local Council of Benue State, the mountain range on the Nigeria-Camoroun border is an integral part of their everyday life.

Ominously dark, with huge boulders and lush green vegetation on its gently rising sides, the people had had cause to look at the mountain range with suspicion and even awe.
In 1995 and again in 2005, there had been rumblings and some gaseous emissions from the mountains.
Then came Wednesday, October 13, when again, the mountains rumbled, the earth shook and gaseous and molten matter spewed out from the mountainsides.This time, two people lost their lives.

It took The Guardian five tortuous hours from Makurdi, the state capital to Tse-Igba, one of the affected villages and another hour on foot before  reaching Abelakpan Mountain, one of the two mountains that erupted. The other is Ba-Mbatyough, both part of the mountain range.

Some of the villagers told The Guardian they knew persons healed after drinking water from the spring that formed after the last eruptions. They called the spring Bo-Tam.This time, there has been nothing beneficial from the last eruption.
They said they were awoken at about 5.00 a.m. by massive vibrations that shook the entire area.
“There were booming sounds as if bombs were being dropped in the area. Nobody had ever experienced such an ugly situation in the past,” Jeremiah Yashi, a civil servant who lives in the community, told The Guardian.

“Most of us thought that we were spending our last days on earth.”Two people died while vast farmlands and houses were destroyed by emissions from the mountains.When The Guardian visited the villages affected by the volcanic eruption, the people were still in shock.They lamented that no official delegation from the government had visited them though they had been notified.

About 10 bridges in the area, including Kikpan Bridge were swept away by the rushing lava as a result of which the area has been cut off from the rest of Kwande Local Council.
Heat from the emissions scorched farmlands while the smell of cooking gas filled the environment in the villages near the foot of the Abelakpen Mountain.

The Kindred Head of Ityuluv Kindred of Mkomon District, Chief Gabriel Hangeior Aja told The Guardian the eruption destroyed farmlands and sources of water.

“ Since the eruption, we have stopped drinking from the stream because the colour of the water has changed beyond recognition and those who attempted drinking from it fell ill”.

He said Shaaka Aja, his 30-year-old nephew and a 10-year-old boy died as they could not withstand the shock of the vibrations.
He said a dignitary in the state who did not want his name mentioned had asked them to take stock of the homes, farms and property damaged by the eruption, so he would take up the issue with the state government and National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

“What I have come to do this morning in the church is to announce to community members that they should take stock of their losses and inform me accordingly.
“This will help us submit the needed information to the government official who said it should be submitted by November 15,” he said.

A former Kwande Local Council chairman, Mr. Akombor Ande Akombor, regretted that the affected communities have been left to their fate, without attention from the government.
He said the emissions from the mountains and the gaseous stench, since the day of the eruption indicate that there was more to the problem than the damages already suffered by the people.

He said: “For us, we need the Federal Government to send scientists to come and research around the mountains. We do not know the smelly gases that we inhale since the eruption and the damage it is doing to our systems. We also do not know what lies ahead of us with the manner the dangers associated with these eruptions are increasing by the day. Beyond relief materials, we need to know our fate as it relates to the eruptions of the mountains around our district”.

The Security Adviser to Governor Gabriel Suswam, Col. Benjamin Abohol who hails from the area told    The Guardian he would call the village to find out the true situation before commenting.
On his part, the Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources and Environment, Mr. John Ngbede said the state government would soon swing into action.

The commissioner, however, claimed that there was no volcanic eruption, and that said what happened was a landslide.
Ngbede said the state government was waiting to get the statistics on the quantum of destruction caused by the natural disaster.
One clear evidence of  government neglected of the    people of Mkomon District is the police station in Anwase.
It was under lock and key, with no policeman near the area.

A commercial motorcyclist told The Guardian it has been  so for years.A teacher at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Mr. Abagyegh Ingyorokogh described the eruptions and emissions as a wake-up call on government agencies to act in order to avert a more devastating eruption that could more lives in the area.

Addressing journalists in Makurdi on Monday, Ingyorokogh, a geologist said that such eruption was a function of geological forces within the earth’s crust, from where magma is forced to the earth’s surface through a crack.
He said that the distance that the magma would travel and cause destruction, depends on the space of the crack on the mountain occasioned by tensional forces under the earth.

Ingyorokogh suggested that detailed scientific research be conducted around the Mountain at the Mkomon District to determine the level of the volcanic threat to the lives in the area.

He said that since the emissions were from the side of the mountain, it was certain that the weakness where the emissions emanated from were not at the top of the mountain as was the case with other volcanic eruptions.
Ingyorokogh called on the government to build protective demarcation lines around the mountain and evacuate the people living in the area to protect lives of the residents.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Hyacinth Vaatyough, a geographer with the National Space Research Institute, the area where the eruption took place, was in the volcanic belt running from Adamawa through the Benue Mountains.He also said that researchers from the Institute have begun efforts to ascertain the nature of the eruptions.

Commenting, the Head, Planning, Research and Statistics of Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Mr. Raph Nduul said that the agency was already taking stock of the damages caused, and promised that the state government would reach out to those affected by the disaster.