From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Water Resources to interface with the Ministry of Water Resources to audit the Ivo Dam project in Ebonyi State in order to complete the project quickly.
The House also mandated the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to immediately provide relief materials and alternative means of livelihood for the people of Ngwogwo, Amaokwe, Okue and Amaeke Communities of Ivo Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, pending the completion of the Ivo Dam.
This followed the adoption of a motion by a member of the House of Representatives for Ohaozara/Onicha/ Ivo Federal Constituency, Livinus Makwe, calling on the federal government to complete the Ivo Dam project, which was abandoned in 2015.
Makwe, in his lead debate, told the House that the federal government embarked on the Ivo Dam project for ” the purposes of irrigation for farming, fishery and electricity generation” amongst other reasons. Nevertheless, the lawmaker lamented that the project has been abandoned since 2015, owing to a lack of funding.
He expressed concern that “the abandonment of the project, without the spillway being in place, the farmlands and rural settlements in the upstream communities of Ngwogwo, Amaokwe, Okue and Amaeke communities have been inundated and sacked by flood, which has prior to the construction of the dam never experienced such for ages.
“Over 40,000 acres of arable farmland and rural settlement communities have remained permanently flooded till date as a result of the dam embankment and during the rainy seasons the flood get higher and spreads more to inland communities, thereby sacking the rural dwellers…”
Similarly, the House has called on the Nigerian Army to set up a military checkpoint at Amaeze-Expressway Road, Amaeze, Ishiagu, Ivo Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, to check the activities of bandits in the area.
This followed a motion by Makwe drawing the attention of the House to attacks on Amaeze Community by bandits in recent times.
The lawmaker, who told the House that one Ejike Egwu was killed recently by bandits in the area, noted that ‘incessant attacks on farmers and murder of rural dwellers and residents of Amaeze community have left the families of the bereaved with aged parents, jobless wives and underaged children with no means of fending for themselves.”