The ongoing distribution of palliatives to victims of flood in the coastal communities of Anambra by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, through its State Agency SEMA, has been described as a total sham.
Persons displaced by flood who TNC correspondent met on Tuesday at the SEMA headquarters in Awka, made this assertion in a chat with him.
The people were supposed to be beneficiaries of the distribution of the Special National Economic And Livelihood Emergency Intervention to 2022 flood victims and vulnerable persons.
Yesterday, the gate leading into the SEMA office was besieged by a mammoth crowd of people who claim to have been displaced by flood across parts of the state.
From about 8am when our correspondent arrived the venue till about 1pm when he left, no one has been handed anything, although few people were selected and moved into the premises.
Emeka Okafor, a flood victim from Onitsha, who expressed dissatisfaction with the way the distribution was going, said they are worried that government would be playing games with the people’s emotions.
“It is a big source of worry to us how government will be playing games with people suffering serious disaster. Since the past four months, they said they want to do documentation and we did.
”Now, they don’t want to share the thing. Look at the crowd here and since morning, we haven’t seen anybody come out of this office with any palliative. This is worrisome,” he said.
Another flood victim from Ayamelum Council Area of the state, Pastor Levi Nnaemeka accused the government of providing palliatives to their kits and kin, instead of giving the exact people affected by the flooding challenge.
He called on government to find lasting solution to the flooding instead of giving them paltry palliatives.
“When you consider the huge devastation this flooding causes us in the hinterlands, then you will know that these things they call palliative are nothing.
“Many of us who took loans to undertake our farming activities are now debtors.
“So, for us, instead calling us out every year to conduct this charade, the government should take urgent steps to address the issues driving this perennial flooding, so that we can have our lives back,” he noted.
Lamenting the hopelessness of the situation, Mrs Ngozi Odinigbo from Awkuzu said the hardship among the people is too much, concluding that with the way government is handling its citizens, only God can salvage the people’s situation.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that many people from Awka community who are not even affected by the flood, were also among the mammoth crowd that besieged the SEMA secretariat.
One of them, Mrs Juliana Nwokeke from Amachalla village, Awka, said she had to come to get something to fend for her family, as those not affected by flood are also suffering from the hardship in the country.
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it has commenced the distribution of relief materials to 18, 904 households affected by flood in Anambra.
Alhaji Mustapha Ahmed, Director-General, NEMA, who made the disclosure in Awka, said the intervention was to cushion the effect of the flood devastation as well as the economic hardship occasioned by the removal of oil subsidy.
Ahmed who was represented by Mr Olusegun Afolayan, Assistant Director, NEMA, revealed that the 2022 flood disaster devastated many communities across the country, including Anambra state.
“After the flood incident, damage and loss assessment were conducted and relief items approved for 18,904 households in Anambra.
“The assessment was done n collaboration with the State Emergency Management Agency, hence, the distribution of the relief items to support the victims’ quick return to normalcy,” he said.
The NEMA DG advised beneficiaries to make utmost use of the items and avoid selling the none food items as it is expected that they continue their livelihood with the empowerment, insisting that they are targeting the right people.
