Rising flood caused by the release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon has reportedly submerged several communities living along the bank of the River Niger in three Local Government Areas of Etsako East, Etsako Central and Esan South East of Edo State.
The Desk Officer, Esan South East Local Government Area on Relief Materials and Distribution, Ojimah Christopher, who announced this while speaking with journalists, said 25 communities have been submerged in the local government.
Ojimah, who also serves as the Local Government Secretary, Emergency Committee, disclosed that the Internally Displaced Camp in the local government has already been filled by displaced persons.
He listed some communities, especially Ifeku, as worst affected, saying that they have been completely submerged and their property and livestock swept away.
John Odaku, a resident of the affected area, said their farm lands such as yam, Cassava, groundnut and other crops, have been submerged by flood while farm produce already harvested were swept away.
He lamented that they could not take their belongings due to raging the flood which he said surpassed last year’s flood level.
“We couldn’t savage our crops and farm produce and livestock as they were swept away by the ravaging flood”, Odaku bemoaned and called on the State and Federal Government to come to their aids, saying that only the local government has been shouldering their responsibility.
In the meantime, the National Emergency Management Agency has charged the people to relocate to IDP camps to avoid casualties.
The NEMA Head, Benin Operation office, Dahiru Yusuf, while speaking on the development, said the agency has been monitoring the flood situation in collaboration with state and local governments and other stakeholders.
He said some communities in the three local governments of Esan South East, Etsako East and Etsako Central are displaced already, explaining that officials of NEMA have visited all the flood prone local governments to assess their level of preparedness, just as he disclosed that most of the IDP camps in the various local government are ready.
