The Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has approved an additional sum of N450m for the mitigation and management of the flooding in the state, bringing the total amount donated so far to N900m.
The Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists in his office in Yenagoa, on Tuesday, said the State Flood Mitigation and Management Task Force would use the fund judiciously to provide more relief items.
The governor had on October 13 approved an initial sum of N450m “for the relocation of persons displaced by the flooding across the state to higher grounds and for the provision of relief materials.”
Duba said the number of flood victims was increasing across the state and there was urgent need to provide more foodstuffs, water and medical supplies.
He reiterated the Diri-led administration’s commitment to giving succour to the IDPs and also guarantee lifeline to those who had lost everything, including houses and businesses to the devastating flood.
Duba said, “The additional amount of N450million will go a long at procuring food and medicine for distribution to many citizens in the eight local government areas of the state, who are running short of the initial basic provisions and food supplied to them by the state government.
“The government will also sustain the effective management of the IDP camps with about 20,000 inmates.”
Meanwhile, the State Flood Mitigation and Management Task Force has taken delivery of more food items procured for distribution to flood-impacted areas and displaced residents of the state.
The chairman of the task force and Commissioner for Environment, Iselema Gbaranbiri, who received the materials at the Oxbow Lake Jetty in Yenagoa, said they were conveyed through the waterways because of the East-West Road was inaccessible to the state.
He also said that the Nigerian Air Force was also assisting the state to airlift some of the food items from Lagos and Port Harcourt to Yenagoa.
Gbaranbiri assured the people that the materials were being been distributed with dispatch so that those in need could get the supplies immediately.
Also speaking, the chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, Walaman Igurubia, advised the National Emergency Management Agency to use the waterways or consider airlifting relief materials instead of the disappointing delay because the Bayelsa was not accessible by road.
