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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa and Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri has cried out for help as the state battles humanitarian crisis triggered by the flood disaster ravaging the state.
Diri, in a broadcast to residents of the state, yesterday while stating that the flooding was overwhelming and beyond what the state alone could tackle declared a one-week off for civil servants not on essential duties.
According to Diri, nearly a million people in 300 communities across the seven local governments namely Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolokuma/ Opokuma have been displaced.
He further disclosed that the state has been severed from the rest of the country as “portions of the strategic East- West Road, the sole access to and from the state, between Ughelli and Patani in Delta State as well as Okogbe and Ahoada in Rivers State have collapsed with a high volume of flood water occupying the stretch.”
“Economic hardship has set in, as food, medical provisions and energy are now in short supply. The situation is desperate and getting worse” he added
The unending flood has continued to wreak havoc as it had washed up several corpses at Azikoro Government Cemetery in Yenagoa, raising health concerns from the offensive odour in the neighbourhoods. The flood, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, had compelled the electricity company in charge of the state to shut down public power supply. This was done out of safety concerns to avoid electrocution as most transformers had been submerged.
Diri, while listing critical infrastructure such as the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, as those affected commended President Muhammadu Buhari for directing the different rescue and disaster management agencies to assist the state.
He therefore urged them to comply with the presidential directive expeditiously and save Bayelsa state.
“Without exaggeration, the sheer scale of the devastation is not such that the state can handle on its own. We urgently solicit the support of multinationals, international donor agencies, the Red Cross, diplomatic missions and people of goodwill to come to the aid of our state.
“I appeal to Mr President to consider special grants to the state from the Stabilization Funds, Ecological Funds and Natural Resources Fund” he said.
On the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps Diri stated that have already been established while the Bayelsa State Task Force on Flood Mitigation and Management in liaison with the State Emergency Management Agency is providing relief materials for victims of the flood.
He, however, directed that the distribution of these relief materials should be done in a non-partisan manner.
Meanwhile, the state government has rejected the recently released Fiscal Performance Ranking by BudgIT which ranked Bayelsa 35th out of the 36 states of the federation.
Commissioner for Finance, Mr Maxwell Ebibai in statement entitled: ‘BudgIT Report: Our Position’ said the report was “merely a rehash of last year’s ranking.”
Ebibai who faulted the report also picked holes in it noting that it “relies on tangential parameters inconsistent with economic fundamentals.”
He stated that it erroneously depended on opaque data and criteria bordering largely on the ability of a state to meet its recurrent expenditure with only its Internally Generated Revenue.
According to him creating a dichotomy between Federal Allocations and Internally Generated Revenue is a misnomer that has attracted protest from the state government which is advocating for true fiscal federalism.
Delta State Governor and Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday, visited flood victims in the state where he called on the Federal Government to build new dams and desilt major rivers in the country to check flooding.
He also urged the government to make efforts at desilting River Niger and River Benue to deepen the depths of the rivers to accommodate high volume of flood water.
Okowa made the call when he visited flood victims at Ogbe-Afor, Onneh and Ewulu Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state.
He told journalists that the best way to end the loss of lives and valuables to flood was for the government to take proactive steps towards stalling perennial flooding each time neighbouring countries opened their dams.
Ogbe-Afor Primary School camp has 1,548 IDPs, Oneh Primary School,1,684 IDPs and 1,475 in the camp at Ewulu.
