…Commend Council Chairman
Victims of the ravaging flood in Abua/Odual Local Government Area of Rivers State have appealed for assistance from the state and federal governments to reduce their plight.
They made the appeal when speaking with journalists recently at an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp at State School, Obedum, which is used by the Chairman of Abua/Odual Local Government Area, Hon. Daniel E.O. Daniel.
Some of the communities affected by the flood include; Adada, Emelego, Ogboloma, Okolomade, Anyi, Akani, Amoruto, Emirekpoko, Obedum, Audua and Emago.
In an interview with journalists, a flood victim, Ojike Ezekiel, from Adada Community, who is also the IDP camp manager, described the flood as “very terrible”.
He, however, commended the council chairman for taking prompt action in evacuating them from the flood-affected communities.
He said: “From the day the chairman sent persons to come and see our community and they saw the community, and we appreciate him (because) without him, by now, maybe, we could have lost a lot of souls in our community. So, we thank the local government chairman for coming to rescue us. If not, I don’t know what would have happened by now”.
Another flood victim, Mrs. Thomas, from Adada Community, which is one of the most affected communities, complained that some of the flood victims in the IDP camp were sleeping on bare floor and would need mattresses.
She said, “We need help”, noting that those at the IDP camp also need to be protected against mosquitoes.
Mrs. Thomas, therefore, appealed to governments at different levels to come to their aid, saying that the flood victims in the IDP camp need mosquito nets, mattresses and medical care among others.
She said that the house in which she was staying with her family was flooded, adding that the flood destroyed her farmland with all the crops on it.
Another flood victim, James Thomas, also said that their houses fell as a result of the flood, which he said also destroyed their food items, farmlands and also killed their poultry.
On the assistance they need from government, Thomas said: “So, what we need now is, we need tents, we need blankets, we need medicare. We need government to come and aid us until the flood is over”.
A primary school dropout at the IDP camp, Miss Fine Destiny Thomas, said that they had to leave their community because there was nowhere to stay since their house was flooded and requested that government should provide for the flood victims and also put her school in order.
In Emelego, Anyi and Obedum Communities where journalists visited, flood water was clearly flowing along the roads in the communities and in residential areas as the road leading to the council chairman’s private residence in Anyi community was also flooded.
A flood victim in Emelego Community, Miss Stella Oyekuodi, who is a two-hundred level student of Biochemistry at Niger Delta University (NDU), Amassoma in Bayelsa State, said that everybody in her compound in the community had moved to where they could stay because the flood had entered their compound and rooms and appealed to the government to come and take them out of the community and provide them with food and money.
However, the Chief of Staff to the Council Chairman, Hon. Okpokipoy Peters, who spoke to journalists on behalf of the Chairman, said that the local government council would provide more food (saying that the flood victims eat three times a day), more mattresses, potable water, through a borehole which was being constructed in the IDP Camp, and bring in primary healthcare officials to meet the healthcare needs of the flood victims, adding that the local government council would fumigate the IDP camp against mosquitoes.
He recalled that the council chairman had immediately detailed him to evacuate the flood victims when he got a call that they were in danger.
The Chief of Staff said that the flood disaster in Abua/Odual Local Government Area was more than what the local government council could handle all alone and appealed for assistance from the Rivers State and Federal Governments, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other organizations to help the council meet the needs of the flood victims in the area.
