October 18, 2022The state governor, Douye Diri, who gave the break in a statewide broadcast on Tuesday morning confirmed that the state was facing humanitarian crisis with over one million persons dis
placed across Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolokuma Opokuma local government areas while businesses shut, properties lost and farmlands had been destroyed.The Bayelsa State government has given its workers seven days’ break as flood ravaging the state continued to wreak havoc across no fewer than eight local government areas.
Diri said that though the flood was a natural disaster that affected many other states of the federation, nearly a million people in over 300 communities in the state were internally displaced while some deaths had been reported. He maintained that without exaggeration, the sheer scale of the devastation was not such that the state could handle on its own.
“I appeal to Mr. President to consider special grants to the state from the Stabilisation Fund, Ecological Fund and Natural Resources Fund. Over the last few days, floods have overwhelmed our communities and severely impacted the lives and livelihood of our people. This is a natural disaster that has affected many other states of the Federation to various degrees. I have been on a tour of several of our communities to see at first hand the extent of destruction.