Dr Alex Egbona, the legislator representing the Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency of Cross River State in the House of Representatives, has raised a motion on the floor of the lower chambers of the National Assembly, on the flood disaster in some communities in his constituency.
Raising the motion under issues of urgent public importance on Tuesday, Egbona lamented that hundreds of his constituents in Ekureku, Agbara, Eminiekpon, Ediba, Anong and Ebom, among many other communities in the Abi Local Government Area, have suffered untold hardship as a result of the flood disaster.
He said as a result of the disaster, his people were forced to flee their homes, while their farmlands have been submerged, thus compounding the economic challenges that the people have been subjected to.
He said there was an urgent need for the federal government to intervene through the provision of palliatives for the victims, while also calling for the extension of humanitarian gestures to the homeless constituents.
The lawmaker also wrote to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, seeking their urgent action to lessen the agony of the victims. In the letter, he said “the flood havoc has since forced the rural dwellers to desert their homes, while their farmlands have been submerged.
“It may interest you to note that the people are largely farmers. Painfully, their source of livelihood has been overtaken by the flood waters. So, they have no place to live, neither do they have any source of income, with which to take care of their families who have been forced to become refugees.
“I am therefore soliciting your kind intervention by way of provision of relief materials in the immediate, to cushion the effects of the disaster they have been subjected to. I trust that you will be quick to act on this, to make them feel the impact of their government in this trying times.”
