Human Rights Group Accuses Delta Govt Of Abandoning Riverine Flood Victims

The group,  Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-corruption Crusaders (FOHURAC) has accused the Delta State Government of allegedly abandoning flood victims in the Ijaw riverine communities of the state.

In a statement entitled “Flood Disaster: How Governments Abandoned Riverine Communities” and made available to BigPen Online on Thursday, the group said its reaction was made public after its Disaster Response Team (DRT) had concluded its site visitation on the riverine communities affected in Delta State.

Cleric E. Alaowei, Esq., National President of the group who signed the statement said that a comprehensive report of the pathetic situation of the victims of the flood would be made available in a subsequent bulletin.

The statement read: “However, the public need to be informed of the pathetic situation the communities have been subjected into because of the flood.

“Our Team discovered that the responses of the Governments at all levels to the plight of these communities are very poor. All of the communities visited by our Team only few of them received relief materials from the Local Government Councils.

“In Warri South West LGA, the Council Chairman sent relief materials to a good number of the communities affected. The same thing applies to Warri North and Bomadi LGAs respectively.

“In Burutu LGA, the Council only sent relief materials to four communities in a place of over seventy communities. The Local Government Chairmen of Warri North, Warri South, Burutu, Bomadi and Patani LGAs did not show any concern by visiting these communities to ascertain the level of damage.

“In the same vein, no state/federal government team has visited these communities unlike what is being done in the upland areas.

“The riverine communities have left to their fate to suffer the excruciating effects of the flood. We cannot rule out epidemics and acute starvation as we earlier alerted the world. Just three days ago, a lady lost her one year old child to the invading flood at Bubougbene Community in Burutu LGA.

“The lackadaisical attitude of the governments at all levels towards these communities is aggravating the whole thing. We are made to understand that the Delta State Government has set up a flood Management Committee to cater for the victims of the flood.

“Our grouse is that why the riverine communities are not being considered in the government’s programme? Are they not part of the State?

“Over 20% of the population of Delta State from the riverine part is being affected by the flood. In some of these communities, the situation is becoming so palatable that parents have to evacuate their children to safer places such as Warri and other upland cities in the State, while many other communities have been deserted by the inhabitants. Those who have nowhere to go have to live under the mysteries of the flood destructions.

“Since the State Government has graciously constituted Flood Management Committee, we were expecting that it will build IDP Camps in these LGAs in order to evacuate people from the affected communities. To our chagrin, the same Committee which had built IDPs Camps in upland areas for the affected communities there has paid no attention to the riverine dwellers. The case of the riverine people is utter abandonment by the Committee.

“If nothing is done to cushion the effect of sufferings in the affected communities then the Governments should be ready to give mass burials to the riverine dwellers in Delta State.

“We are calling on the international community, people of Goodwill, international donors, the red cross society, religious organisations, federal and Delta State governments to come to the aid of these communities. A stitch in time they say saves nine”.