By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN— INHABITANTS of Umoghun Nokhua community in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State have sent an SOS message to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and other relevant government agencies to come their aid following the damage done to the community by heavy rains last week.

They complained that property worth millions of naira, including 95 houses and thousands of people were displaced by the flood that followed the rains.

Chairman of the Community Development Association, Mr. Michael Eghaghe in a statement in Benin, yesterday, said: “On August 4, a downpour overwhelmed the roadside drains under construction in the community and flood washed off houses built with mud in six quarters and destroyed homes and property worth millions of naira.”

Reacting, Edo State NDDC Commissioner, Mr. Peter Enogieru, who visited the community to access the extent of damage, said the commission had set up a committee.

He said the committee was  made up of stakeholders drawn from the community, NDDC, the contractor and consultants handling works in the area, to work out modalities for acquiring discharging points for the flood water.

He blamed the problem on the community’s refusal to make available land for the construction of discharging points, adding that “the community has now seen the need to release land for the discharging point.”
The community chairman, however, said that though no life was lost, the damage was unnecessary and avoidable even if the drains under construction has no discharging points as the area was a flat terrain.