A Nigerian man has been rescued three days after being swept away by flood in bayelsa state.
The news was announced by a Twitter user, Akpos Malafakumo Best, on her Twitter handle. In her post, Akpos stated that the flood victim had been washed away with the flood on East-West road, and only survived after holding on to a tree branch for three days.
The flood which hit Bayelsa has reportedly covered bridges and the East-West Road. The state is also threatened by health hazards as several hospitals have been submerged by the flood.
With the development, the Governor, Douye Diri, has given the civil servants seven days to stay away from work due to the difficulties faced by them. He also confirmed that the state is presently facing humanitarian crisis with over one million persons in the state displaced across Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolokuma Opokuma local government areas and businesses shut, properties lost and farm lands destroyed.
Governor Diri in a state-wide broadcast at about 7am yesterday, said though the flood was a natural disaster that had affected many other states of the federation to various degrees, nearly a million people in over 300 communities in the state, had been internally displaced. Unfortunately, some deaths had been reported.
He said critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads, bridges and schools, including the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, had been severely affected.
According to him, without exaggeration, the sheer scale of the devastation is not such that the state can handle on its own. “We urgently solicit the support of multinationals, international donor agencies, the Red Cross, diplomatic missions and people of goodwill to come to the aid of our state. I appeal to Mr. President to consider special grants to the state from the Stabilization Funds, Ecological Funds and Natural Resources Fund.”
Story: Ene Ken-Yawe
