Flood: Bayelsa IDPs, Camp Ox-Bow Lake witnessed over 11 new born Babies

Over eleven children has been born at the Ox-bow Lake Internally Displaced Person camp within the last two weeks of camping as a result of the ravaging flood that submerged virtually the entire Bayelsa state.

Among them were three sets of twins, a triplets and others that were born single.

According to the chairman of Bayelsa state Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Hon. Samuel Igrubia Wallama, the children and their mothers are in good health as government is doing it’s best to give them the best care that they needed.

The chairman while briefing journalists on the distribution of relief materials to some private IDP camps within the Yenagoa metropolis. Saying the initial distribution by the sub-committee didn’t get to the people as expected.

“For sure, not everybody can get to government created IDP camps. Some people decided to stay back by finding a higher ground and organised themselves a camps”.

“The first relief materials we distributed, most of them were not captured because we didn’t know the pattern the sub-committee were using and so their were a lot of complains here and there from the private IDP camps that the thing didn’t go down well with them”.

“So, we decided to go back to the drawing board, made some investigations and came out with some identified clusters and picked a handful of them, and that is what the central committee is doing by reaching out to them and to let them know that government also feel their pain.

“We are starting with Yenagoa metropolis and I think after this exercise, the complains will be reduced”.

Hon. Igrubia said, the same thing will be replicated at the various local government level where the sub-committee will identify some private IDP camps and supply them food items.

“Whether they are in the camp or on the street, if they are Displaced they are Displaced and besides, almost everybody’s is affected. So in any way the the committee can reach out, we will do it. The only thing we can not do right now is going from door to door, but if they come together and form a camp, we will give them relief materials”.

Also speaking, the chairman of the 2022 floods and mitigation committee, Hon. Iselema Gbaranbiri said, the committee have been able to gathered some relief materials from both air and water ways as a result of the nine hundred million naira released in two tranches by the governor to the committee.

He said most of the items have been distributed to the local government areas through the sub-committee and they are still procuring more items within and outside the state.

“But the central committee is distributing some food items like garri, rice, beans amongst others to private IDP camps which we identified as clusters within the metropolis. The one handled by the sub-committee did not trickle down to them and we felt that as a central committee, we should also go to the private IDP camps and homes where people gathered together”.

Tife Owolabi
Journalist
Niger Delta
@tifeowolabi