A devastating flood has submerged Udaba Ekperi community as well as its neighbouring communities and towns in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State, leaving the inhabitants homeless, stranded, helpless and without succour whatsoever.
The tragedy which happened in the aftermath of the overflow of the River Niger particularly affected Udaba Ekperi where houses were submerged, burial ground washed off and freshly buried corpses exhumed.
A community leader and former member of the Edo State House of Assembly and commissioner for Sports, Barrister Lawani Damian, appealed to the relevant authorities to, as a matter of urgency, come to the rescue of the communities.
Lawani, who said his house was submerged under the water, lamented the hardship his kinsmen were facing.
The state government has yet to respond to the horrific development.
He said the pathetic situation was the local cemetery in the communities where the freshly buried corpes were exhumed.
This, he said, might cause a serious disaster in disease outbreaks in the communities.
He said that their farm and local animals like goats, chickens were also destroyed in the flood that had sent children out of school.
Speaking to journalists via telephone, Barrister Lawani Damian said, “Khai, where’s the humanity in us as a people and as a nation? What is good governance without the protection and provision of social welfare to the governed. Is Edo State and Local government a failed STATE?
“As I speak with you now, we have not been able to salvage anything from our various homes. Items of property were destroyed, and our farms are submerged.
“The schools are under the water. Freshly buried corpses are exhumed. Fear of disease outbreak has enveloped the communities.
“We are seriously appealing to the local government chairman and the state government to urgently to a serious step in rescuing our people.
“The few ones that are lucky have no place to stay, no food, no water, no clothes. Honestly, it is a pathetic situation right here,” he said.
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