Over eleven children have been delivered at the Ox-bow Lake Internally Displaced Person camp within the last two weeks of camping, amid the ravaging flood that submerged virtually the entire Bayelsa state.
Among them were three sets of twins, triplets, and others that were born single.
According to the chairman of Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Hon. Samuel Igrubia Wallama, the children and their mothers are in good condition, as the government is doing its best to give them the best care that they needed.
The chairman, while briefing journalists on the distribution of relief materials to some private IDP camps within the Yenagoa metropolis, said the initial distribution by the sub-committee didn’t get to the people as expected.
“For sure, not everybody can get to government-created IDP camps. Some people decided to stay back by finding a higher ground and organised themselves a camps”.
“The first relief materials we distributed, most of them were not captured because we didn’t know the pattern the sub-committee were using and so there were a lot of complains here and there from the private IDP camps that the thing didn’t go down well with them”.
“So, we decided to go back to the drawing board, made some investigations and came out with some identified clusters and picked a handful of them, and that is what the central committee is doing by reaching out to them and to let them know that government also feel their pain.
“We are starting with Yenagoa metropolis and I think after this exercise, the complaints will be reduced”.
Hon. Igrubia said, the same thing will be replicated at the various local government level, where the sub-committee will identify some private IDP camps and supply them with food items.
“Whether they are in the camp or on the street, if they are Displaced they are Displaced and besides, almost everybody is affected. So in any way the committee can reach out, we will do it. The only thing we can not do right now is going from door to door, but if they come together and form a camp, we will give them relief materials”.
Also speaking, the chairman of the 2022 Floods Management and Mitigation Committee, Hon. Iselema Gbaranbiri, said the committee have been able to gather some relief materials from both air and waterways, as a result of the nine hundred million naira released in two tranches by the governor to the committee.
He said most of the items have been distributed to the local government areas through the sub-committee and they are still procuring more items within and outside the state.
“But the central committee is distributing some food items like garri, rice, and beans amongst others to private IDP camps, which we identified as clusters within the metropolis. The one handled by the sub-committee did not trickle down to them and we felt that as a central committee, we should also go to the private IDP camps and homes where people gathered together”.
Meanwhile, the Task Force on Flood Management and Mitigation Committee has begun the distribution of palliatives to various cluster camps, and internally displaced persons within the state capital, Yenagoa.
Speaking to journalists at the various cluster camps, the chairman of the Taskforce on Flood Management and Mitigation Committee, Hon Iselema Gbaranbiri, said the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, felt the pulse of what the people of the state were passing through as a result of the flood and had decided to distribute the palliatives to cushion the effects of the ravaging flood.
Cluster camps visited include ST. Peters camp at Ovom, UPE school Ovom, Akaba and Ogun, the camp of persons with disability (PWD), ST. Matthias Catholic Church, Amarata, Amarata and Kalango camp, Azikoro camps, off Goodnews street and community secondary school at Azikoro.
Items distributed included rice, beans, oil, onions, garri amongst others.
Some of the recipients of the palliatives at various cluster camps applauded the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, for his kind gesture for assisting affected individuals and groups whose houses and offices were affected by the flood and wished him well in his political future.
According to the Chairman of NUJ, Comrade Samuel Numonengi, he has been clamouring for the welfare of his members that have been displaced by the ravaging flood and was excited when he was informed that the Task Force Committee on Flood Management and Mitigation, led by the State Commissioner for Environment, Hon Iselema Gbaranbiri, were coming to the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ernest Ikoli press centre, to donate the Palliatives, which would go a long way to assist affected members and assured that they would be distributed. He, however, expressed appreciation and commended the state governor, Senator Douye Diri.
Also speaking, the Chairman of disabled persons in Bayelsa state, Mr Eric Ikilowei and his members, was excited to receive the Palliatives sent to them, which confirmed the state governor’s interest towards the plight of his members and being the only governor that has appointed over ten disabled persons in his government. They used the opportunity to not only pledge their unalloyed support to the present government but will never protest and block roads as they did to previous administrations. He used the opportunity to solicit for more assistance, especially medical care, mosquito nets and mattresses, to which the Commissioner for Environment, Chairman of the Task Force Committee on Flood Management and Mitigation, Hon Iselema Gbaranbiri, assured them they should sustain their peaceful disposition as the state ministry of health would handle it.