By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

The Ijaw Media Forum (IMF), an indigenous social watch group from the Ijaw-speaking parts of Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States has raised an alarm on the high level of environmental devastation and havoc flooding is currently causing in the area.

It has therefore despatched a very urgent plea to the Federal, State Government and other interest groups to come over and rescue the people and the land before what is left of the area is completely submerged.

In a statement issued in Yenagoa, Friday,  the IMF National President, Elder Asu Beks, appealed to the United Nations, the Federal Government of Nigeria and and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA , to move in without delay to avert what it referred to as a raging calamity.

The body emphasized that speedy intervention will save not only the lives of the people but an environment already degraded following many years of oil exploration with little attention to environmental sanity.

The recent flood disaster being felt in various states in Nigeria is taking an alarming  dimension in Bayelsa State,  and the entire Ijaw area, the Ijaw Media Forum observed.

“As we speak, most of the communities in the state are  under water”, the statement said.

“Never before has flooding been so devastating in the history of Bayelsa State and the entire Niger Delta as currently being experienced.  Properties worth billions of naira have been destroyed while thousands of families have been rendered homeless. Bayelsa State has been cut off from the neighboring states of Delta, Imo and Rivers as bridges and roads have collapsed.”

IMF noted that though the Bayelsa State government has doled out about N450m to ameliorate the sufferings of victims, this can hardly cope considering the enormity of the effects of the disaster.  Palliatives expected include food, medical supplies, temporary shelters as well as rehabilitation of bridges and roads, including health facilities and schools which have been wiped away by the ravaging flood.

The statement said that the Ijaw Media Forum is yet to fully assess  the extent of damage as the Committee set up by Gov Douye Diri is already taking an  inventory of the extent of the disaster.

This is as the East – West Road which links Bayelsa Sate to Rivers, Imo and Delta has been closed to traffic in the past 48 hours.

” We have not been able to account for  the number of lives that may have been lost to the flood as collation is ongoing,” the group added.

Since the disaster struck, the IMF regretted, no official of NEMA has visited Bayelsa State. The body appealed to the  National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to activate their Corporate Social Responsibility mandates and provide needed assistance in this regard.

Elder Asu Beks commended Gov Douye Diri for his quick response by visiting the affected communities and presenting them with cash and palliatives.