The member representing Mbaitoli/Ikeduru Federal Constituency of Imo State, Henry Nwawuba has disclosed that, about 35,000 people have so far been displaced from 35 communities across his constituency.
He disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the flood affecting his constituents.
According to him, many people have been displaced and farmlands washed away.
He said, “We naturally in the south east are bedeviled with a lot of erosion issues, maybe because of the texture of our soil, but this year it has been particularly bad.
“I have reached out to the intervention agencies, especially NEMA. In my letter I listed about 35 communities because we have 64 autonomous communities that make up my constituency. We have a total of about 35,000 people that are currently displaced. Homes have been washed out.
“Yesterday in the news if you saw what happened in Bayelsa where we even had dead bodies being washed up the ravaging flood. Flooding is a very big menace and looking for food and relief items and even non-food items at the moment, just to cushion the effects. It has been very bad.
“I hope it can be taken as a matter of emergency, so we can get necessary relief to the people as quickly as possible. Hopefully I do believe the emergency services would get to us. We have also reached out to the refugee commission for displaced people.
“We are just looking out for any kind of intervention or assistance be it emergency or scheduled. Whatever we can get now for the Federal Government would really go a long way in assisting the people.
“Thank God it is budget season and it would be good to see us capture palliatives and things that would cushion the effects against next year’s harvest, because we know that food production in the country this year would be a challenge.”
He described the challenges posed by this year’s flood as unprecedented, adding that there were high volumes of rainfall from the north down to the southern part of Nigeria.
Nwauba therefore called on the federal government to provide all the necessary assistance to the victims of the flooding in his constituency in order to ease their sufferings.
The lawmaker also urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide a moratorium for farmers who obtained loans but were affected by the flood.
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