From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa, Paul Osuyi, Asaba, Aloysius Attah, Onitsha, Tony John, Port Harcourt
There is growing fears and anxiety in Bayelsa, Delta and Anambra states as flash floods threaten communities, forcing residents into Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, even as fuel crisis worsens and food prices skyrockets.
In Delta the premises of the state’s University of Science and Technology in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area has been submerged by the flood.
Over 70 per cent of the institution’s landmass has been covered by water as of yesterday, a development that has prompted the management to close the school for two weeks.
Edith, wife of Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa described the flood incidents as “an act of God.”
Mrs. Okowa stated this during a sympathy visit to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Asaba.
Meanwhile, The National Executive Council and Board of Trustees Christian Association of Clergies in Nigeria has established Special Trust Fund for the rehabilitation of flood displaced persons in various holding camps across the country.
Christian Association of Clergies is an association of clergy men standing for the social welfare of the clergy, laity and the citizenry.
The group in a statement released in Onitsha yesterday signed by its National President, Archbishop Yiman Orkwar and National Coordinator, His Lordship Justice Ikpeama decried the excruciating sufferings of flood victims due to lack of basic necessities of life in their camps.
The statement said the government, political class, corporate organisations and affluent individuals should spare no efforts to contribute immensely toward ameliorating the pathetic plight of the victims and their families.
It was gathered that in Bayelsa State, the flood disaster had triggered acute fuel scarcity; prices of food items had gone through the roof as the state had been cut off from supply of petroleum products and foodstuffs from neighbouring states.
According to an investigation, the state of the road at the Delta and Ahoada axis has made it difficult for trucks and vehicles bringing food items such as garri, tomatoes, onions, beans, rice, poultry products and fuel to access the state.
A measure of garri in the state now being sold for N3, 500, a piece of onion for N500 while a bag of rice is now being sold for N50, 000.
Aside from the NNPC fuel station at Bay Bridge junction still selling a litre of fuel for N180, three other fuel stations were dispensing fuel at N400 per litre.
Residents of the state, having waited in vain for the opening of the Internally Displaced Persons camps by the state government have opened their own camps by the roadside.
The state government has appealed for help, declaring that it is facing a humanitarian crisis.
The State Commissioner for Environment, and chairman of the state’s Task Force on Flood Mitigation and Management, Mr. Iselema Gbaranbiri, who raised the concern on Saturday while giving update on the committee’s activities, said no fewer than 300 communities and villages had either been totally or partially submerged.
In Delta State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Delta central senatorial district, Ede Dafinone, called on the state government to swiftly intervene and bring succour to flood victims.
In a statement, Dafinone also called on the Federal Government, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant agencies to speed-up emergency operations.
He said over 46 communities in Ughelli part of Delta Central were currently flooded with several households displaced and while property worth several millions of naira had been destroyed.
Similarly, Mrs Okowa appealed to well-meaning Deltans and Nigerians to show kindness to the people in the IDPs in the camps.
Gbaranbiri disclosed that about 700,000 persons had either been displaced or affected by the flood.
He said virtually all the communities and streets in Yenagoa Local Government Area as well as Sagbama, Ekeremor, Ogbia, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Southern Ijaw had also been either submerged or partially flooded.
Meanwhile the Watchdog for Progressive Ijaw (WPI) has lambasted the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Ministry of Niger Delta for their lack of preparedness in handling the ongoing flood disaster.
It (WPI) particularly frowned at the nonchalant attitude, insensitivity and what it described as obvious lack of capacity being displayed by the Interim Administrator of NDDC, Dr. Efiong Akwa, at a time people of the region were urgently in need of the commission’s intervention.
The group, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Charles Taylor, lamented that despite all the warnings ahead of the flood, Akwa’s NDDC failed to prepare for it.
Taylor, a former factional president of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, said it was time President Muhammadu Buhari removed Akwa and inaugurated a substantive board for NDDC to stop further embarrassment of the commission by its current clueless administration.