Flood sacks another seven communities in Edo

Another seven communities have been sacked by flood from the River Niger in Estako Central local government area.

The affected communities are Udaba, Ofukpo, Agbaburu, Osomegbe, ukpeko, Ugochi and Anegbette.

Over 500 houses were submerged by the flood while farmlands were destroyed.

Some of the affected residents in Udaba said the area was neglected after the 2012 flood disaster as the communities road which would have made it easy for them to access upland communities during such disaster.

They claimed that they did not relocate to the federal government resettlement camp built by the flood committee in the last administration because there was no access road to Oghomere and there was no sign before the sudden rise in water level.

Village head of Udaba community, Chief David Inetape said they use ferry boats and canoes to access their houses.

Mrs Rose Akinabor lamented that the flood destroyed her life savings

Eye witnesses said farmers have begun premature harvest of their rice, cassava, groundnuts and yams to avoid total loss.

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According to one of the farmers, “If we don’t harvest our crops now as you can see they will spoil and we will suffer. We have decided to harvest our six months old cassava.

“You know we don’t have any farm that is up to a year now because that of last year also destroyed our farms”.

Vice chairman of the local government, Mr Ambrose Kelvin Akhigbe, said the council has cleaned up the federal government resettlement camp with the aim of relocating the flood victims to the area.

He said, “We are going to the affected communities with speed boats to evacuate them. If anyone resist leaving the areas we are going to persuade them to leave so that whatever the government and individual will be bringing they will benefit from it at the camp.

“The borehole is set and the rooms are been tiding up to ensure that it is conducive. We shall also bring a very big generating set to ensure regular supply in the camp so that the displaced persons can feel at home.”

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