By Simon Ebegbulem
BENIN—WORRIED by the havoc caused by flood and erosion that led to the collapse of the Omemi Bridge, which links Etsako West and Akoko Local Government Areas of Edo State, the state House of Assembly, yesterday, passed a resolution calling on the State and Federal Governments to come to the rescue of the affected communities.

The House also ordered the state Rapid Response Agency to urgently provide relief materials to the victims, to cushion the adverse effect of the disaster, which had rendered over 1000 persons homeless. The erosion also cut the affected local government areas off from their neigbouring communities.

Shaibu who moved the motion on  Order of Matters of Urgent Public Importance, decried the seeming helplessness of the victims, stressing the need for concerted efforts to be made to alleviate the sufferings of the victims.

Messrs Kabiru Adjoto and Peter Aliu also lamented the unfortunate incident and called on the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency,  FERMA and the state Rapid Response Agency to immediate move in and provide relief materials to the victims.

Speaker of the House, Bright Omokhodion, sympathized with the victims and appealed to relevant agencies,  including the Ministry of Women Affairs to move in and ensure that normalcy was restored.