Staff of the Federal College of Education (Technical) Omoku, Rivers State who were displaced by the raging floods that washed away many communities in the country have carried out for help from the Rivers and Federal Governments.
The displaced staff who launched their appeal in a press statement signed by the college’s PRO, Prince C. C. Amadike Otoboh and made available to National Network also solicited the help of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited, ELF, International Donors, NEMA and other humanitarian organizations.
They lamented that over one month the flood sacked them and their families, destroying their homes/properties worth millions of naira no government agencies have enquired about their condition.
The over 600 staff of the school according to the statement said they had been squatting in the college students hostels, lecture halls, assembly halls and hotels with no help coming from anywhere.
They reasoned that maybe it was because they were not staying in the IDP camps in ONELGA that they had not gotten help from the state and federal governments.
According to the statement, over 40% of the staff displaced were teaching staff while 60% were made up of the senior, junior and non teaching staff of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) both are unions existing in the college.
The chairmen of these unions, the release said, had a comprehensive lists of the affected staff of their unions expressing dissatisfaction that no governments had come to help them.
They however thanked the management of the institution led by the Provost, Dr. Emmanuel Ikenyiri for providing some of the affected victims shelter in the college.
Recall that the Dr. Ikenyiri while addressing the flood victims when he visited them along with the management staff and union leaders sympathized with them over their plights and thanked God that no deaths was reported.
