[VIDEO] See Terrifying Raging Seas Surge That Have Left Ilaje In Ruin

• IDSG Pushes For UN, Nigerian Government Urgent Intervention
• Decries neglect of Ilaje coastal communities by government
• Sets up committee to assist the displaced

A year in, year out raging seas surge from the Atlantic Ocean, have left several coastal communities in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, South-west Nigeria in ruin.

BIGPENNGR.COM understands many of the communities are now shadow of their former selves with only relics of the destruction staring visitors on the face.

The destruction, it was gathered stemmed from a natural and human activities.

Ilaje, an oil producing area of Ondo have been facing worsening cases of sea incursion for years, according to local sources.

The development, experts say may not be far unconnected to rise in sea level – a result of both global warming and oil exploration.

A footage of a recent surge obtained by BIGPENNGR.COM, shows how floods washed away homes, the cemetery and the iconic worship centres in several communities in Ilaje.

The footage indicated that fishing – the people’s main occupation – has also become impossible due to the polluted water and high tide.

The communities wear a dreary unpicturesque look of ghost town resulting from many years of pollution of the area and rising sea level that have led to the loss of properties, plants, animal species, among others, while some families have been separated over the need for shelter.

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Rev. Sola Adebawo, Executive Administrator of Ilaje Development Summit Group (IDSG), says many communities in Ilaje Local Government, such as Messe, Gbagira, Jinrinwo, Odofado, Abereke and others, have suffered incessant debilitating effects of the ocean surge.

The most recent impact, according to him, is felt at Aiyetoro, the hub of Ilaje creativity and industry, where several homes have been damaged, and several properties worth over a billion naira destroyed.

Ilaje Local Government Area, said to be the only oil-producing local government in Ondo State, counts for the over 60,000 per barrel of crude per day that Ondo is contributing to the nation’s crude oil production, according to report.

…relics of several occurrences of surge over many years… gets worse each year

The 60,000 BPD, amounts to about 3.7 per cent of Nigeria’s total oil production with the state ranked 5th among Nigeria’s eight oil producing states captured by the NDDC law.

Yet, the area is grossly neglected and abandoned in the face of the ocean surge crisis ravaging it for many years, Adebawo said.

He noted that without urgent intervention, many communities in the area would cease to exist in a few years.

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Adebawo, who responded in a statement issued in Akure on Friday, decried the neglect of the Ilaje communities in the coastal shoreline of Ondo state by successive administrations and leaving the communities to the mercy of the Atlantic Ocean over the years.

Following this, the IDSG chief, called on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the United Nations as well as the Ondo State Government to urgently intervene in the unrelenting incidents of sea incursion, ravaging coastal communities in Ilaje Local Government of Ondo State.

…In other parts of the Local Government, the whole communities are submerged

The group, also called for immediate provision of relief materials and medical support to alleviate the immediate hardship of the people, and called on Ondo State Government to help provide temporary Shelter for the displaced.

Speaking further, Adebawo, said that as part of the IDSG’s concerted efforts to drive the process and facilitate state actors engagement, an Intervention Committee, headed by former Chairman of Ondo State Civil Service Commission, Primate Afolabi Aboyewa, has been constituted.

Adebawo said that the committee was mandated to coordinate activities aimed at supporting the displaced people in the affected communities as well as collaborating with government at all levels and all key stakeholders to alleviate the suffering of the people and to deploy a sustainable solution to the intractable problem.

The consequences of inaction are unimaginable…

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