Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Ondo
Residents of Ayetoro, a riverine community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State now live in danger following the incursion of the town by water. The disaster has defiled solution as nothing is being done by either the government or the community to prevent what has turned out to be a yearly disaster. The situation affected both the social and economic activities of the people as water took over all the facilities in the town.
Many government properties including schools, clinics and police posts were leading to the closure of schools. Pupils and students of public primary and secondary schools were ordered to embark on three weeks vacation.
Many residents were rendered homeless, while properties worth millions of naira destroyed, making life miserable. The disaster occasioned by heavy rain fall also affected farming activities causing heavy damages to farmlands.
The coastal community located in the Southern Senatorial District, stretches from the Araromi waterside boundary with Ogun State in the West and close to 100 kilometres up the Benin River in the East with Delta State. A community leader, Mr Emmanuel Aralu, expressed worry on the frequent sea incursion.He said the latest incident occurred after a downpour which lasted for three days: “The havoc caused was much more devastating than the first one which occurred in April, as a result of a downpour which lasted for five and a half hours.”
An elder in the community, Mr Lawrence Lemamu, decried the abandonment of the community at the mercy of ecological disaster, which he said wiped away more than three kilometers of their land and threatened their existence as a people:
“We urge the government to quickly save us, save our civilization, save our generation, save our land, the land which our fathers gave us more than 68 years ago. Is it until we all perish in the sea and all our hard earned properties and precious ones are washed away that the government at all levels will come to our rescue?
“The community, established on January 12, 1947, is the only one in Nigeria renowned for its communism and theocratic system of government.”
He pleaded with the Federal Government to give them the first dividend of democracy by completing the embankment project in the town.
“The theocratic town, since it was founded, has not enjoyed any benefit from the state government. The power project and the roads in the community were achieved through communal efforts. We anxiously await the fruits of the pressure which the state government promised it will mount on the Federal Government for a thorough work on the embankment projects awarded by the NDDC.”
Mr Smith Ogunbanwo, said: “The wish of the people is that government should put up ocean control mechanism like it was done in other civilized parts of the world. Government should rule out the possibility of relocating and evacuating the people to other safer areas. The community is putting up efforts with the state government to relocate the submerged schools in the community to a new location in the interest of our children.”
In April, Ayetoro experienced similar situation as residents were thrown into confusion ,following the incursion by sea of the only secondary school in the town, Happy City College. This happened when students were preparing for resumption of a new academic session, thereby causing a delay.
Government responded as Governor Rotimi Akeredolu directed members of the state Executive Council from the area to inspect the level of damages. He also expressed government’s readiness to assist the community, just as he assured them that occurrence of would be prevented. He declared that students would not miss new academic calendar, and that normal academic activities would be arranged for them.
His deputy, Mr Agboola Ajayi, said during inspection of the town: “We have come specifically on the instruction of the governor to assess the school and see what could be done, so that some of the natives, who were contemplating on sending their wards to neighbouring communities to continue their education, would be assured of an uninterrupted academic calendar in the community.
“I want to assure you that we will commence rehabilitation work immediately because we want to see a situation where within a week the students are back to their classrooms so as not to miss much in their academics.
“This is a natural disaster; we want them to bear with us. The Governor is interested in ensuring that the community is safe, without any problem. It is a natural disaster that requires the intervention of the Federal Government as well.”
The deputy governor who noted that only a modern technology could put an end to the disaster, called on the Federal Government to assist the state by helping in finding lasting solution to the annual disaster. He urged the Federal Government to do more in the protection of the oil producing community:
“I remember when I was in the House of Representatives, I personally led members of the NDDC to this community and I also traveled to Netherlands to look at the modern technology which we felt it would have been able to solve the problem.
“Certainly, you can see that this has gone beyond Ondo State Government. We will make noise and let the whole world know that Ayetoro is in danger, Ondo State is in danger and the federal government should rescue this oil producing community.
“Probably what they did in Lagos will solve this problem. Look at Eko Atlantic City, this was able to stop the sea incursion and people are able to drive freely and not only this, they are even building houses on top of the sea. The community is now about three kilometers away now, a lot of houses have been washed away, children cannot go to school. So we are worried but we are assuring our people that we will not relent on our efforts
He said the committee will ascertain the impact of the flood, number of communities affected; public property affected; the extent of damage to communities and suggest measures that could assist the state in her pursuit for succor from the Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).