FLOOD CAUSES TALE OF WOES, TEARS AND DIM HOPE IN DELTA

They were clamped in one small pavilion. All eyes fixed into one small television. It was raining and they were just being evacuated from some riverine Isoko communities in Delta State.

They were mostly children, some shaking under the weather. It appears they were in a private compound which was also flooded. They were taken into the abode by a public spirited indigene.

They stayed in the compound for days until a lawmaker representing Isoko South Constituency 1, Hon Benjamin Essein who evacuated them came for their onward redeployment to the relief camp.

The state government had established relief camps but the camps were getting filled by days. Government said they would open new camps and move people into them even when they were not prepared.

The state government had announced camps in four council areas of Asaba, Ossisa, Kwale, Aboh. None for Isoko yet the flood was heavy in that part of the state.

Then many were trapped between Ikpidi-Irri, Cana-Irri and Iyede-Ame until concerted efforts were made by the Secretary to the State Government, Ovouzorie Macaulay, member representing Isoko South Constituency I in the state Assembly, Okiemute-Essein, John Kpokpogri, the governor’s Special Adviser on Security and Lucky Edoh, the Head of Personnel Management in Isoko South Council and host of others.

Some locals however refused to be evacuated. They doubted the extent the flood could go and more so they are not used to living outside their enclave.

One of the rescuers at Ivrogbo waterside said that some people almost drown at Okrama-Oyede community. They were abandoned following shortage of rescue boats. They however tried to find their way to nearby Ivrogbo with heavy load on their heads stepping through the flood.

Isaac O Ererewho said that in the flooded villages, all the mud houses have now collapse except some few block houses. Some persons who were trapped in the community were said to have climbed an upstairs with only one canoe available in the entire village.

Also at Ewu, Ughelli South local government area reports say hundreds of people were stranded and lost to the flood. Some including a nursing mother managed to clamp on a wooden boat where they have being since the flood started.

Some locals in Ndokwa speaking area however refused being evacuated by the Isokos, preferring to wait on their kinsmen in government who were however nowhere to be found. By the time Ndokwa people came, they refused picking Isokos who were crying for help.

Some were after their properties, while some just picked a few clothing. Others rushed to the farms harvesting premature cassava and plantains to cushion the effect of their stay out of their abode. They however never knew government was making plans to camp them until the flood recedes.

For the families that were rescued, they found safety at the camps, but with very little hope. There's no end in sight to when the flooding would end. They have food at the camp but not enough. Their children are learning to call a refugee camp home.

Some don’t even know what is amiss. In spite of the predicament, some are happy they are free from the rigor of schooling. They want to play. They are happy they are free from the stress of schooling and farming but to some, the memories of how their parents managed to rescue and evacuate them in tiny wooden boats is fresh in their mind.

The camps are not in reality built for the purpose. They are government established schools turned refugee camps over night because of the way the disaster came. They lack the facilities needed for a refugee camp.

But the local council had provided a water pumping machine to get water for drinking and cooking. Few hired mobile toilet facilities and electricity in place. Mattresses and pillows were provided by government and donors as relief few days after the camping process started.

The Secretary to the State Government, Ovouzorie Macaulay and Okiemute-Essein had reiterated that there was no party dichotomy in the evacuation operation despite the fact that people cried that they were stranded and abandoned. “People were taken across all board”, Macaulay said. It was learnt the governor's Special Adviser on Security, John Kpokpogri alongside Okiemute-Essein who hails from the area had influenced the deployment of navy personnel from NNS Delta to evacuate more people.


Okiemute-Essein said: "At a time, they said if you are not a Ndokwa speaking person they wouldn't allow you to board their boat, so we took it upon ourselves to evacuate all our people. So we mobilized more boats and it was a total operation"

Some people had however blamed the state government’s apparent absence for the shortfall in the operation, saying if not for personal efforts of Isoko indigenes many people would have died with the flood. But Okiemute-Essein disagreed saying; “If anybody tells you the government was not there the person is lying. First when it started the deputy governor came to the scene and then the governor was outside. When the governor came, he mobilized and asked everybody to go into the field.

If the government was not present you wouldn’t have seen government vehicles round the place. The government was fully on ground. Who are the people in government? it is those of us that are in power. The governor cannot come here and start dragging people out, it’s we who are foot-soldiers that would do the job. So the governor was present.

He said that the issues of party dichotomy were seriously kicked against during the meeting convene by the SSG on the flooding saying however “if some people are trying to bring dichotomy into the system, well it’s a perfect arrangement”.

When there’s a crisis, the issue of party doesn’t rise at all. The dichotomy of party doesn’t rise. Every one of us works assiduously to make sure lives are saved”.

He said; “In situations like this there must be some ups and downs but I want to tell you this, the state government on its own did everything humanly possible to ensure the operation didn't fail.

“But if failure is coming from anywhere those involved should be held responsible. I’m saying this categorically that if anybody can stand up today to say the governor didn’t do anything as regards the evacuation of this people and the welfare of this people, the person is lying. Those who were made care takers should be held responsible", Essein said.

“So on the issue of the governor and the government, the governor responded very well, the deputy governor responded so well likewise the SSG. I give them kudos. The SSG is a man; he never segregates Isoko South from North”. “If anybody thinks he wants to make money from this process that person is a lair. That kind of money is blood money. You wouldn’t see them because they are people’s blood and tears”.

“The problem is more than the state government and one thing we have to thank the governor for is for his quick response otherwise the situation would have gone out of hand”.

“But when issues like this involve money it would take the grace of God to get 70 percent accountability. I was there and I saw what was going on.

And if I'm called upon to investigate the operation, somebody would go to jail. You don't politicize this kind of occurrence. If you are given the opportunity to serve, use it well so that God would bless you, the lawmaker added.

He said that during the evacuation, we were given specific instructions to go to our effected areas and ensure that lives are saved.

The lawmaker said that everybody in Isoko who dwells in the coastal areas were affected adding “now the water has started crawling to the urban areas. If your house is not affected, you corps would be affected”.

He however said that as the water recedes, “we would get to the entire community and villages to asses and know what to do. The House and the State government would definitely have a post-flood impact arrangement for the people so I appeal to the people to keep calm”.

The Head of Personnel Management of the Isoko South Local Government, Mr Lucky Edoh has been on ground for days. He resumes at the facility everyday ensuring everything is working fine at the camp. Yet, the facility is not a home; a lot of things are going wrong within.

“It would be very unfair to the state government to say people were abandoned. In the first place, the camp that was opened at Ivrogbo-Irri was set up by the state government through the efforts of the state Deputy Governor, Prof Amos Utuama-led State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA)”.

In Edoh’s estimation so far, over 50 Isoko communities have been submerged and an untold number of families displaced. And they are trying to make the place habitable for the people.

“We have over 2000 persons excluding children in St Michael’s College here. We also have 2000 people in Odoro Primary School besides children, and more people are being evacuated and documented. The number is very large so there’s no way you can satisfy everybody at the same time even to cook for a party of less than 200 persons you know how difficult it is not to talk of cooking for over 6,000 persons.

“Initially, we provided boats to add to the ones provided by the state government who have been very helpful in this devastating flood. Even at Ivrogbo-Irri, we provided some facilities to cushion the effect on those who were already brought to the camp there”.

He said that the camps have been having a lot of complains concerning health related matters but “the health staff I believe from what I have seen are doing well but there’s no way you can have 100 percent effectiveness because the drugs no matter the numbers they wouldn’t be adequate because of the large number of people here”.

Edoh said that the challenges range from adequate space and relief materials- “We have challenges with mattresses and pillows, however a lot of donations have been made”.

“The council has provided some. And the state government has also provided through SEMA and a good number of NGOs too. The wife of the governor, Mrs Roli Uduaghan also brought a good number of items- food items, clothes, etc. and everybody would be touched”

Part of the items that the council has provided include the clearing and fumigation of the entire building. We also did the initial feeding for about three days here before the state government took it over. We provided a generator set to pump and illuminate the premises. We also provided mobile toilet facilities though they were not adequate and a lot more”. He therefore appeals to people see this situation as an emergency until the flood recedes.

But while Edoh is working alongside other staff of the council to ensure things are put right, some people are busy stealing from the food items donated into the camp. Reports say some bags of rice, garri even cooked food sometimes vanished into thin air from the camp.

Besides, it was like a child labour day inside the camp on Tuesday, this week. The governor was expected at the camp. And children in the camps are made to do the cleaning of the environment in the scorching sun on a daily basis.

Some officials of state Waste Management Board as well as Ministry of Environment were seen ordering children to hand pick the dirt in the camp into a refuse bin. One of them said when asked; “if they were at their various houses, would they (children) do house chores”?

It was not clear if that was a routine thing for the children at the camp but sources said that everything regarding camping are already been paid for. But some children queue to fetch water which drove them from their land in a tap.

The St. Michael’s College, Oleh, headquarters of Isoko South Local Government Area of the state, where one of the camps is relocated was recently reconstructed by the state government. The buildings are new and neat before the camp started.

Monica and her two kids are among hundreds of IDPs from Iyede-Ame community in the camp. Monica is a farmer. She looks so bitter inside the camp and her fear in the camp is better not told.

She knows she has escaped the flood but the trauma, fear of what will become of her when she returns lives with her.

She had no husband. She cares for the kids alone. She has Obaro, a 3 year old and Cynthia 2 year old before she lost her man and now she lives in a camp with all hope ditched.

Duncan Akpoviene Afahokor is the administrator of the popular social media forum, “Umeh Need Road”. The state government is constructing a 7.6 kilometer road in his community which is also affected by the flood. The project is costing the state a whopping sum of N3.625 billion.

Afahokor’s facilitated forum has been able to raise some large sum of money to which they had made donations of items to the camps in Ozoro and Oleh.

He said that basically, what we are looking at is the post-flood era because we are a farming community. What happens after the flood recedes is our concern now”.

Few of my people are in Oleh but majority of them are with relatives however many still need to be evacuated. Before now we had a facebook page called “Umeh Need Road” but right now we really need boats to evacuate our people from Umeh.

Speaking on the fate of the road, Afahokor said: “It’s obvious that the 18-month target for the road is no longer feasible. It’s what we called force majeure, an act of God.

“Before now the contract was that the state government would deliver the road by 18-months while we on our part would increase our level of agricultural production”.

“It‘s a social contract between us and the state government but presently no part would be able to fulfill its own obligation as a result of the flood. The government wouldn’t be able to give us the road in 18-months and we won’t be able to produce agricultural products that would feed the state or the nation because our farms that have been washed away”.

He however commended the state government and Isoko political class for setting up the camp but the standard here is still very low when you compare with what is happening in other jurisdictions.

“I know even in Asaba, they are engaging the IDPs. They have set up skill acquisition center even computer training center but we don’t have that kind of a thing here in Isoko”.

“The only thing here is that people are struggling to feed the IDPs. So I want to call on the government to keep on improving on the facility we have here.

Again the sanitary condition here is alarming because the number of toilets that we have are not sufficient for the number of people here.

The people here are overwhelming. And they need to as a matter of urgency, fumigate the place because it’s prone to mosquitoes that cause malaria”.

At the level of Umeh Need Road as an advocacy group, we have sustained the advocacy and we have joined the government in calling on our people to leave the danger zone. That we have done.

“We have also set up a relief material committee and we have donated the first set of relief materials we bought. We bought so many items including kerosene and it’s going to be a continuous process.

Despite the bitter tales, they can still cheer. Succor is what they want. It comes their way in thousands of tons of relief materials. Besides the food and medical care needed in the camps, one thing they needs is counseling and moral support. The state government had provided medical care but it was not clear whether there are counseling units.

Nothing feels better this time when they see notable people coming to see them either to reassure them or donor relief materials. When the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ovouzorie Macaulay led a delegation of Isoko political class to the camp after a meeting he convened over the flooding of the communities, they cheered him not because his is a son of the soil but because he reassured them of governments full support and assistance.

Few days later, the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Victor Ochei visited. Ochei again rekindled their hopes. He spoke in the popular Nigeria colloquial language, pidgin so that they could understand very well. They did and were so excited.

Ochei reassured that they are not alone in the flooding. He said it was a national catastrophic and that the Federal Government was making plans to mitigate the suffering of the people.

There, Ochei noted some lacuna in the camp and order that they should be made right. He ordered the separation of the children who are so much in the camp from the adult. He said the children must be taught while in camp.

He also ordered that drugs and medical personnel that were petite in the camp are increased and truthfully the state government had the next day dispensed more drugs and medical personnel to the various camps to cater for the medical needs for the victims free-of-charge.

Ochei who cut short his working visit to Dublin, Ireland because of the disaster said that the Executive and the House would put in place measures to assist the victims.


Afahokor said that the party dichotomy which is already causing ripple effects in the camps had forced some IDPs to shun the camps “like in Uzere for example where the people are heavily divided along party lines I understand that people of one political inclination refused to go to those camps”.

“So I think the government should come up and take over the running of that camp so that people don’t see it as one political party affair.

He suggested that there should be camp commandants, there should be proper security of IDPs, well documented and if possible their passport pictures should be taken.

“The government should be able to deploy machinery to do this because if eventually tomorrow compensation or any form of alleviation is to be given to the IDPs, it would be the proper documentations done in this camps that would aid the government guide against fraud.

Ordinarily, I expect that by the time they would be demobilized because these persons were rescued, some of them with nothing, the government should give them some kind of assistance as result documentation becomes very necessary.

It’s very clear that by next year if the government doesn’t take any action now there’s going to be hunger in the land. So the government needs to take proactive steps to reenergize these people particularly the farmers. They should give them support.

They should give them improved seedlings. Everything should be done like an emergency situation. The government should be able to provide seedlings that can reach maturity stage in the next three months.

The government should be able to as a matter of urgency release the seedlings to stabilize the price of agricultural products. Also I would say that the money the government is recovering from fuel subsidy should be used to subsidize post flood impact, subsidize agriculture, and subsidize implements so that Nigerians would not go hungery”

Written By Joe Ogbodu