Flooding: IDPs accuse govt of hoarding relief items

Victims of the 2022 flood in Bayelsa State have accused the state government of hoarding relief items donated by public-spirited individuals and organisations for distribution to them.

Chairman and Secretary of the steering committee of the Coalition of Respective Leaderships of Aggrieved 2022 Flood Promoted IDP Camps in the state, Pastor Leighe Nathaniel and Mr Christian Iwokurai respectively, advised the state’s flood mitigation committee not to allow the bitter history of hoarding palliatives repeat itself in the state.

The group, in a letter addressed to Governor Duoye Diri and the Civil Liberty Organisation, decried what they described as uneven distribution of palliatives by the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Committee (BYSEMA), noting that the state government only took care of IDPs in the two camps set up by it in Igbogene and Oxbow Lake, while other IDP camps in public schools were neglected.

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The group said they were out to make inputs to improve the lots of fellow flood-impacted residents in the sharing of the palliatives.

But the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Task Force on Flood Mitigation and Management, Mr Iselema Gbaranbiri, while reacting to the accusation, called on Bayelsans to be patient with the government as the second round of palliative distribution was ongoing.