From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Flood victims from Isoko area of Delta State on Thursday alleged that there were corrupt practices in the manner they were demobilised from their respective Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
The victims, numbering over 100, in a protest to Government House, Asaba, accused government officials of corruptly enriching themselves with the compensation meant for flood victims.
Brandishing placards of different inscriptions, the protesters issue a 14-day ultimatum to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to compensate them, warning that they would hold the ‘mother of all protests’ at the Government House if the ultimatum was ignored.
One of the protesting victims, who simply identified himself as Ewoma, lamented the “fraudulent and corrupt” way the government officials in charge of the compensation carried it out.
He alleged that several millions of naira meant for flood victims have found their way into private pockets.
“Even the St. Michaels College IDPs camp, Oleh, was full of discrimination and was used as a conduit to loot government treasury.
“One Prosper, an aide on DESOPADEC was larger than life at the camp, ejecting, rejecting and treating victims with disdain while accepting majorly only victims from his area, Igbide community and Uzere community where his godfather hails from.
“We were not taken good care of, and when government officials came to Oleh to pay victims compensation of N50,000 and N100,000 each as the case may be, to our surprise, people that were being paid were strangers with strange faces, their family members, girlfriends who were never seen any day at the ICS camp.
“For every 20 names that they called, only two or three will come out among the real flood victims while the rest that were paid were never known to us or even seen in the camp. The payment the government officials came for was just a mere jamboree to amass illicit wealth to our own detriment.
“The fraud and corruption that took place at the ICS IDP camp was enormous. Those government officials only came to pay themselves, not flood victims with what happened last week at the ICS IDP camp, Oleh,” he alleged.
Addressing the protesting flood victims at the Government House entrance gate, Chief Economic Adviser to the state governor, Kingsley Emu, appealed to them to remain calm.
He promised to inform Governor Okowa about their plight for appropriate and immediate action to be taken.