Comrade Peter Igbifa, president of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to take immediate action to address the humanitarian situation caused by the devastating floods in Bayelsa State and other parts of the Niger Delta.
Igbifa pleaded with President Buhari to activate equipment to tackle the flooding crisis immediately, claiming that the situation in Bayelsa required more deeds than rhetoric.
“Bayelsa needs serious support from the Federal Government and the world to enable it to manage in this crazy flooding event.
“Over 1,000 communities are severely affected and over 20 million people in the Niger Delta are affected directly or indirectly.
“We have seen in the course of this disaster how floods exhumed dead bodies that floated in their numbers in Bayelsa State leaving the populace to face the hazardous health, environmental and psychological challenges on a regular basis since water invasion.
“The governors of the Niger Delta states, particularly Bayelsa, are helpless and require urgent intervention to ameliorate the devastating humanitarian crisis in the state.”
Igbifa warned that if the flood issues were not addressed properly, the development would have far-reaching implications for the 2023 general elections across the country.
He also bemoaned the fact that several presidential candidates had supposedly shown no concern for the lives and property that had already been lost to the calamity since the floods had devastated numerous portions of the region.
He stated: “Since the floods began to ravage our people, no candidate has shown solidarity by visiting impacted areas in the region and providing palliatives to the helpless and homeless people as a result of national negligence.
“We shall only support the candidate that values the lives of the people of the Niger Delta beyond our resources and winning elections.”
