From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa, Tony John, Port Harcourt, Aloysius Attah, Onitsha, Molly Kilete, Abuja  and Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe

Amidst  claims by the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government had abandoned flood impacted Niger Delta region, especially Bayelsa State, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and the Nigerian Navy, yesterday, commenced distribution of relief materials to affected communities in the oil-rich state.

      NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, in a statement, said the relief materials, airlifted from Enugu State to Igbogenne community via Port Harcourt would be distributed to the affected communities.

     Similarly, the Central Naval Command (CNC) of the Nigerian Navy also donated food and humanitarian supplies to victims in Agudama community, in Yenagoa Local Government Area.

      The donation was done by Rear Adm. Idi Abbas, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) of the CNC. The items included garri, sachet water, noodles, bread.

The FOC said the donation is part of  the Navy’s statutory responsibility  to care and support and sympathise with host communities in their trying times.

    He said the CNC would also render free medical service to them because most of them will be sick.

        This came as Governor Douye Diri approved additional N450 million to the Flood Mitigation and Management Taskforce as part of efforts to provide more relief materials such as food items and medical supplies to the increasing number of flood victims across the state. Funds so far released to the committee has hit N900 million.

Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba, told journalists that the  Diri-led administration was committed to providing succour to all victims of the devastating flood and give lifeline to those who have lost everything, including houses and businesses to the flood.

He assured that government will also sustain the effective management of the IDP camps with about 20, 000, 00 inmates.

But according to the IYC President, Peter  Igbifa, over 85 percent of the entire Bayelsa was under water with about 100 deaths in the last two weeks.

He demanded the deployment of presidential fleet to Bayelsa State to rescue trapped victims and mitigate the damage already done by the flood.

Igbifa in a statement in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, lamented that Bayelsa had been cut off from civilisation as the floods took over and washed away significant portions of the only road leading to the state, the East-West road, at both Rivers and Delta states’ axis.

He described the condition of the people at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Bayelsa as terrible, crying out that the traumatised victims required urgent medical, food and cash deployment to avert starvation and outbreak of diseases.

He told Buhari that the situation was so overwhelming that all commendable efforts of the state Governor, Senate Douye Diri, to mitigate it had become like a drop of water in the ocean.

He said the IYC under his watch had also set up a flood relief committee to procure some materials and share to the victims, but insisted that his effort was not enough to avert grave danger faced by the people.

He wondered why Buhari would maintain unimaginable aloofness to the state of his predecessor, former president, Goodluck Jonathan, who willingly handed over power to him, abandoning his people at their time of need.

“As we speak, former President Goodluck Jonathan is officially an internally displaced person. His country home has been submerged and the people of Otuoke like other people from different parts of the state are traumatised. Bayelsa’s case is pathetic and requires special intervention from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government. The floods destroyed the East-West road, the only road leading to Bayelsa at both ends of Rivers and Delta. Therefore the entire Bayelsa is cut off and unaccessible by land.

Igbifa claimed Federal Government would have risen and quickly undertaken emergency responses if the flood had affected the flow of crude oil in all the pipelines located in the state.

Similarly, the INC led by its National President, Prof Benjamin Okaba, decried the poor response of Federal Government agencies to the humanitarian crisis in Bayelsa and other Ijaw territories.

Speaking during a visit to the Internally Displaced (IDPs) camps in Bayelsa and Patani, Delta State, he re-echoed calls for resource control and a Republic of the Ijaw people.

Okaba, who disclosed that the INC would also visit Ijaw territories affected by the flood in Rivers, Edo, Ondo and Akwa-Ibom called on Federal Government to come to the aid of the people in these trying times.

According to him if the money realised from oil had been properly utilised, Niger Delta region would not be where it is today being destroyed by flood.

“It is not too difficult to take the oil, but it is difficult to bring relief materials to people. It is very shameful and unfortunate. We will continue to cry until the day God will listen to our cry and give us our own Republic. We will know that’s the day all these problems will come to an end.”

The IDP camp Commandants at Ox-Bow Lake in Yenagoa and Patani, Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai and Mr. Ladein Omiebi in separate remarks thanked the INC for the gesture and appealed to other public spirited organisations to come to the aid of the people.

•Atiku donates N55m

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has donated N55 million to flood victims in Bayelsa State.

Speaking at the Government House, Yenagoa, he said the donation was his token to support the recovery process of those affected by the flood.

Describing the disaster as disheartening, he lamented its effect on the lives and economy of people of the state and called on the Federal Government and public-spirited individuals and organizations to support Bayelsa in this difficult moment.

He advocated the setting up of an independent flood disaster relief fund that will provide succour to victims and  a temporary fund for farmers to ameliorate their losses and provide them with capital for next year’s planting season.

He also urged the Federal Government to build the required infrastructure to contain excess waters.

He said if elected president, he would commit to completing the dam in Adamawa State and take other necessary measures to ensure that Nigeria does not suffer this magnitude of damage as a result of flooding.

The PDP candidate offered scholarship up to university level to children of the late footballer, Ernest Peremobowei, who drowned after saving five other victims of the flood in a boat mishap.  He also presented a posthumous award to the late footballer for his bravery.

•Businessman warns of looming food crisis

Anambra businessman, Chief David Edochie-Onuora, has  raised the alarm over looming food crisis if the federal and state governments failed to take drastic action to ameliorate the impact flooding across the country.

Chief Onuora, who spoke yesterday in Onitsha after visiting five IDPs camps expressed grief over the plight of displaced people, especially children, pregnant and nursing mothers

He called on governments to take farreaching steps towards addressing the impact of the disaster even as he beckoned on more public spirited organisations and individuals to immediately come to the rescue of victims.

The businessman donated cash, food items and other materials worth several millions of naira when he visited Crowther Memorial Primary School , Onitsha, where over 1,000 persons are staying, Nneyi Umueri IDP Camp housing over 1,500 persons, Udeabor Umueri IDP Camp, Community Primary School Umuoba IDP Camp and Father Joseph IDPs Camp, Aguleri.