Victims of the flood disaster in Kogi State are reportedly trooping in their hundreds to Delta State, where they believe Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is more compassionate and doing something to assuage the pains of the flood victims in his state.
Just two days ago, flood victims in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, took to the streets, accusing the state government of abandoning them for over one week, in spite of huge funds and relief materials collected on their behalf.
According to the protesters, some of who wore overcast faces, a number dressed in threadbare dresses, and others with their babies strapped behind them, government officials had diverted food items meant for them into private use.
Unknown to the Kogi flood victims who were migrating to Delta, majority of the flood camps in Delta were in the process of winding up and the victims were already returning home to restart life.
Delta State Committee of Flood, headed by Justice Francis Tabai (rtd), ran into some of the victims from Kogi barely 24 hours after its inauguration. The committee members met the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, from Kogi pleading desperately with officials at the Illah camp, Illah in Oshimili North Local Government Area, to allow them in, as they were hungry.
“The committee noticed over 100 women and children fresh presumably IDPs locked outside the gate of the camp, as officials refused them in on the grounds that the camp was winding up and there were no relief materials for their upkeep,” a source said.
The victims told members of the committee that they were from Kogi and needed care, but they were advised to go to Asaba or any other designated camp close to them for registration, as the Illah camp was about to be closed.
“As at when we visited Illah flood victims’ camp, there were only 45 families remaining in the said camp. The development we were told by officials of the camp was quite understandable due to the fact that majority of the said IDPs are farmers and fishermen/women from neighbouring Kogi and Anambra states, who are very eager to return to their trades, especially since now is the peak period of their trade,” a committee member said.
