Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has raised concern over the misfortunes that have gripped victims of flooding in the Niger Delta with a call on the Federal Government to act fast because of looming disasters and humanitarian crises.
He queried why the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, whose mandate was to ensure strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response, has neither been to the Niger Delta nor sent any relief materials to them but donated food items to vulnerable and displaced persons as a result of banditry in Sokoto State.
The Ijaw leader also challenged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to name any development his regime has carried out in the Niger Delta region, with exception of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State.
Clark raised the issues in a statement titled, ‘The deplorable conditions of flood victims – Need for Federal Government to act fast, not to abandon the Niger Delta’, obtained by journalists in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, the flood for the year 2022 is said to be worse than that of the year 2012.
He said, “I enjoin the Federal Government bodies to act fast and sincerely. And should ensure that if relief items are provided, they will actually reach the right people for whom it is meant. The Federal Government should please act fast. A great disaster is looming.
“Even in 2012, I recall that it was so bad that I embarked on a visit to some of the flood-ravaged communities, both in Bayelsa and Delta States, with some relief materials, for the flood victims, to encourage them. Because at such times, whatever is donated to these victims goes a long way, to bring some sort of succour.