By Dayo Johnson

OVER 200 persons and residents of Ayetoro, a coastal community in Ilaje area of Ondo State were, weekend, sacked by a surge of the Atlantic Ocean.

More than 20 houses were destroyed by the surge.

Narrating their ordeal, a resident of the community, Emmanuel Aralu, said the surge started Saturday night and caught many of the residents unaware.

According to Aralu, “about 25 houses were affected, while no fewer than 200 persons were rendered homeless with water submerging most of the houses in the community.

“Apart from sacking some of the residents from their homes, many other houses were submerged while property worth millions of Naira were destroyed.”

Damaged

According to Aralu, the surge covered about 500 metres of Ayetoro community’s landscape with many houses and land submerged, including the house of the Spiritual Head of the community, Bishop Iwatan Eretan.

He continued: “The surge occurred in the middle of the night when many people had retired to bed. We tried to pack some of our properties, but when we noticed that most of the houses had been submerged, we had to evacuate people from their houses.

“Property worth millions of naira were destroyed and washed away into the ocean.”

Aralu pleaded with the state government to come to the aid of the people of the community, saying the embankment project by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, had failed to prevent the ocean surge in the area.

Also, he appealed to the authorities of Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, OSOPADEC, to assist the community.

“We want to appeal to the state government and other relevant commissions to quickly come to our aid and give necessary assistance before the surge sacks the whole community,” he added.