Rivers State Deputy Governor and Chairman, Rivers State Flood Relief Committee, Engr. Tele Ikuru, says he has no hand or knowledge of the circumstances leading to the death of one Mrs. Chidinma Maureen Lucky, as a result of alleged forceful eviction from the flood relief camp at Okwuzi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the State.

The Deputy Governor was reacting to a statement issued by Social Action, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Port Harcourt, and carried in some online, national and local newspapers, alleging his involvement “in the forceful eviction and death of one Mrs. Chidinma Maureen Lucky, a HIV/AIDS positive woman and an indigene of Okwuzi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the State,” during the recent flood disaster.

According to his Press Secretary, Mr. Biobele Da-Wariboko, the Deputy Governor as Chairman of the State Flood Relief Committee, had no knowledge, directly or indirectly, in the purported eviction of the said HIV/AIDS flood victim from the camp along-side her children.

Contrary to Social Action’s position that the Deputy Governor visited the Okwuzi camp as a response to its report on the health condition of the deceased, Engr. Ikuru was on his normal routine visits to the camps when he visited the Okwuzi flood camp in the Ogba, Egbema, Ndoni Local Government Area of the State on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, where the campees complained of the presence of an HIV/AIDS infected person in the camp.

The Deputy Governor not only explained to them that neither the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) nor the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) is transmissible on physical contact but harped on the need to show care and concern to those infected or affected and why people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) should be accommodated and he charged the health officials at the camp to ensure that every campee is adequately taken care of.

Engr. Tele Ikuru, did not at any time, directly or by proxy, verbally or by any other means, order the eviction of the said Mrs. Chidinma Maureen Lucky or  anyone else out of the flood relief camps as alleged by Social Action.

Social Action failed to tell the public how they arrived at the HIV status of the deceased and what actions they took to bring her succour. They also failed to tell the public at what point and through what means the Deputy Governor ordered the eviction of the said AIDS patient. Was it during his visit to the camp or on a later date? And was it only Social Action that was present at the time the Deputy Governor gave such orders? The NGO also failed to explain what they aim to achieve by dragging the name, integrity, reputation and good office of the Deputy Governor into a matter that does not connect to him in any way,” the statement added.

According to the press secretary, Engr. Ikuru would not be so inhuman to order the eviction of the woman when it was under his watch to accommodate, take care and even provide medication for those who were sick irrespective of their social status at the various camps. It therefore becomes perplexing, the rational and premise Social Action is drawing its inference upon and what benefit the Deputy Governor would derive from the eviction of a person in such critical condition, having made adequate arrangement for health workers to take care of all flood victims.”

“It would interest Social Action and the general public to know that the camps set up by the Rivers State Government at the time they were operational were without any form of discrimination, neither was there any condition attached for admission in the areas affected by the flood disaster.” It is on record that the way and manner the Committee managed the camps and flood disaster necessitated the collaboration of Shelter Box, an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in the United Kingdom,” he said.

On their call for probe into the flood relief expenditure, the State Flood Relief Committee and the Deputy Governor graciously welcome any agency, civil society or any interest group that wants to probe the Committee’s accounts, records and expenditure, given the fact that all their activities were carried out in an accountable and transparent manner, and in strict compliance with due process.

“The Rivers State Flood Relief Committee therefore has nothing to hide. Its books and activities are always available for public scrutiny at anytime,” he declared.