The Anyama-Ogbia community in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, on Tuesday, staged a peaceful demonstration against their alleged neglect by the state and federal governments amid ravaging coastal erosion.
They lamented during the protest in the fishing and farming settlement that they had been abandoned to suffer the devastating impacts of the ecological menace over the years.
They carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Coastal Erosion is Destroying Us, ‘Is Anyama-Ogbia Not Part of Niger Delta?’, ‘Erosion is Exposing Us to Hardship’, ‘Government And Residents’ Buildings Have Been Washed Away’, ‘NDDC Come to Our Aid’ and ‘Federal Government, Bayelsa Government Come and Help Us’, among others.
Speaking on their plight, a compound chief, Ase Humphrey, complained that coastal erosion had washed away their houses, economic trees and vital government establishments earlier sited in Anyama-Ogbia, which was the headquarters of the Anyama clan in the area.
He said that pubic property lost to the coastal erosion included a government courtyard, church building, two rice mills, primary school, three jetties, post office and a police station while a colonial oil mill was on the verge been washed away.
Humphrey said, “This side that we are is a new settlement. The old original Anyama has been eroded away long ago. Coastal erosion is disturbing us, there is nothing we can do. Some people have moved out to other places because of fear of coastal erosion. We are dying here.”
Also speaking, the secretary-general of the community, Potency Aleibharola-Owei, said that they were living at the mercy of the ecological disaster whose occurrence was aided mostly by annual floods.
“Coastal erosion is our problem. Anyama-Ogbia was founded in 1655. Since then, coastal erosion has been disturbing us as a people. We are suffering, and the erosion has exposed us to untold hardship. Over 500 houses have been washed away over the years”, he stated.
The community appealed to the state and federal governments as well as interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission and philanthropists to come to their aid by building shoreline protection to mitigate the erosion problem.
The head of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of Nigeria in Bayelsa State, Alagoa Morris, who led a team of civil society and environmental activists to the area following a recent landslide, described the living condition of the Anyama-Ogbia people as pathetic.
He regretted that the state and federal governments had abdicated their responsibilities and allowed the people to suffer life-threatening ecological and environmental problems without solutions for several years.
Morris said, “It is most unfortunate that since the creation of Bayelsa State, none of the administrations since 1999 has embarked on shoreline protection for our communities.
“It is not rocket science. It is just because the Bayelsa State government has not deemed it important to deal with this ecological problem because it has to do with the people and their immediate environment where they are living.
“They cannot relocate from their ancestral home. So, while I blame the state government for not doing anything, we, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, have called for the establishment of Flood and Erosion Commission in Bayelsa State whereby one per cent of the 13 per cent derivation (accruing to the state) should be directed to this commission.
“And the commission should have been empowered by law to collaborate with other federal interventionist agencies and international development partners to deal with such ecological and environmental issues.”
The environmental rights activist urged the government to, without further delay, take urgent steps to save the people and the community from extinction.
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