Senior Special Assistant to the Bayelsa State Governor on Media, Comrade Tamarakuro Oweifie, has faulted comments credited to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, that Bayelsa State is not amongst the top-10 states hit by the devastating effects of the 2022 flood.
While expressing shock on the criteria the Minister used in making the assessment, the SSA stated the need “to put the record straight that Bayelsa stands as the worst impacted state from the floods due to several indices that are verifiable and uncontestable.”
Oweifie noted that of the 33 states Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) forecast to be flooded this year, it is only Bayelsa State that was cut off from the rest of the world as a result of the flood.
“The two land access routes into Bayelsa through the East-West Road were totally impassable, the over 10 kilometers Umeh-axis of the Patani-Ugheli end in Delta State, and the over 19 kilometers stretch of the Okobe-Ahoada axis in Rivers State, were totally cut-off, thereby leaving residents in Bayelsa State at their own mercy”, he said.
He continued that “Petroleum Products, cash crops and other basic necessities were totally not accessible, food shortages and fuel supplies were at an all time low, leaving residents at the mercy of cut throat marketers who sell as high as a thousand naira for a litre of fuel.
“It was not so in other flood impacted states across the nation”, which according to him, “were still selling a little above the stipulated price of N180 per liter”.
The media aide disclosed that beyond the non-availability of staple foods for residents and internally displaced persons, Bayelsa stands as the only state nationwide with all Local Government Areas affected by the flood.
Noting that since late September when the flood started in the State, neither the Federal Government nor National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had rendered any assistance, Oweifie questioned from where the Minister’s statistics of deaths from the flood came.
“There have been over a hundred flood-induced deaths occuring in the state without due records due to the challanging terrain, as most health care centers and hospitals were closed down during this period.
“The Bayelsa State Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and other rural health centers have been shut down due to flooding.
“Over 300 communities affected, and mortuaries in the state capital are currently filled up to capacity due to hundreds of flood impacted deaths and with rotten corpses and cadavas.
He stated further that, “Bayelsa stands as the only state in the federation where public and private schools have been closed down for six weeks due to the flood, while other states, including those the Minister say are on the top-ten worse hit states, have been managing some public and private schools, and getting education amidst the flood.
“Bayelsa State has faced a total shut down of its economy as a result of the flood as over 90% of its population have been directly or indirectly impacted by the ravaging floods.
“Houses have been totally submerged in Biseni, Elemebiri, Ekperiwari, Sampou, Kalama, Tombia, and in all communities in Ekeremor, Sagbama, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Ogbia and Southern Ijaw.
“The data relied upon by the Federal Government to place other northern states as worst-hit than Bayelsa is erroneous and must be duly corrected.
“The Minister should show us a state whose whole sources of economic livelihood were totally cut off as a result of the floods?
“She should show us a state that had all her LGAs under the flood. She should show us a state whose education system, public and private, were totally stalled during this flood period?

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa