Anambra State Lawmaker Donates Property To Flood Victims

By Chinwe Onuigbo,Awka

The lawmaker representing Ogbaru Federal constituency at the House of Representatives Abuja, Hon. Chukwuka Onyema popularly known as Chuchu Onyema has donated his multi-million naira property at Idemili Odekpe in Ogbaru to house victims of flood disaster in the constituency.

Ogbaru federal constituency which has been completely submerged by the flood in the area, has sacked inhabitants of the area from their respective homes; forcing them to seek shelter wherever they found one.

Hence, the main reason Chuchu Onyema volunteered his multi-million naira property to house the Internally Displaced Persons,IDPs who were apparently too many to count.

Apart from donating his property to serve as IDP camp, the federal lawmaker also doled out relief materials worth millions of naira to all the communities and IDP camps in Ogbaru local government area, saying that it was his little quota to help alleviate hunger in the area as the flood has indeed had a devastating effect on them.

Onyema noted that it was rather unfortunate as people have lost their means of livelihood. He said the 2022 flood disaster reminded one of the COVID 19 era when the Federal Government intervened with relief materials and other forms of palliatives.

He said such palliatives were urgently needed in the present circumstance to help the people especially during the post flood era.

He said most rice farms have been carried away by flood and that hunger crisis is imminent even as he explained that they would move motions to persuade the government of the federation to provide little assistance to people affected by the flood.

According to him, there was absolute need to either dam or dredge the River Niger in order to proffer lasting solution to the perennial flooding in Ogbaru as indigenes can not be compelled to vacate their ancestral homes due to incessant flooding, stressing that it is rather unfortunate that the flood assumed such devastating magnitude.

The Federal legislator also opined that another very critical concern is the post flood era. He said people have lost their means of livelihood; that farmers, fishermen and indeed everyone have lost everything to the flood.

He added that the federal government should make adequate relief plans for those in the riverine areas to help alleviate their sufferings especially after the flood.

He said he and his brothers in the state assembly thought it necessary to distribute relief materials to the IDP camps and communities in Ogbaru just to assist the people in their own little way.

Onyema also disclosed that one of the family properties had been given out to IDPs for them to stay until the flood is over.

Onyema said, “People actually sleep on the roads. The forest behind has already been displaced by water. Now, what that simply means is that all kinds of reptiles like snakes, crocodiles, monkeys and other animals displaced from the forest, will now come into town because they too are looking for where to feed and then, you have people sleeping on the roads. It is really dangerous.
“Wherever we have houses, we give them out for people to go and stay because that is really the best we can do right now. The level of devastation is enormous. A church has collapsed in Iyiowa. The wall of the Naval base in Ogbaru has collapsed. The damage is enormous and it is not something the state government can handle alone.
I actually pity the state government because they are new. They came into power tackling insecurity and this now happened. They are really trying. This is a Federal Government issue. The only bad news so far is about the boat mishap that happened in Umunankwo while some of the IDP camps have been overwhelmed by water. Those overwhelmed by the flood have been closed and that is why we donated our family house to provide shelter for internally displaced persons.”

Receiving the relief materials officially from Hon. Chuchu Onyema at Okoti Odekpe in Ogbaru local government area, the Transition Committee Chairman of the council area Hon. Paschal Aniegbunam, said the people of Ogbaru never expected that the deluge will get to the level it is at the moment as the water level kept increasing everyday.

Aniegbunam said all the communities in Ogbaru local government were under flood waters and completely submerged. He said Atani, Akiri and other communities have been consumed by the flood.

That one will hardly see buildings because the devastations according to him were too enormous and daring.

He mentioned that the state government provided four IDP camps in Ogbaru even though they didn’t anticipate the flood will get to the level it is. He said government takes care of the IDPs in the various camps; providing food and medicare for them.

The TC chairman noted that the only unfortunate thing was that Government began sensitization early enough about imminent flooding but people in Ogbaru were adamant and didn’t heed government sensitization for them to come to the uplands for safety and succor. That even as their homes were in water, they still wanted to remain there.

On the other hand, Ogom Izukanne who hails from Atani in Ogbaru, said that the water level was becoming too high when compared to the 2012 flood.