Leaders and indigenes of Obogoro community, Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, have called on both Bayelsa State and the Federal Government to come to their rescue and save their ancestral land from extinction.
The call was sequel to the surging erosion that has washed away a large portion of their riverside town, located along the Ekoli River, thereby exposing the indigenes and their properties to risk of extinction.
Overwhelmed by their predicament, the troubled indigenes and their leaders noted that the Goodluck Jonathan Bridge connecting communities across the Ekoli River to mainland Yenagoa might also be affected if nothing was done urgently to checkmate the erosion.
The community leaders and indigenes hinged their fear on the recent flood alert by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, NIHSA, which warned of imminent flooding in some states, including Bayelsa.
Speaking on the menace and its implications for the ancient community, the paramount ruler of Atissa clan, HRM, King Godwin Igodo, bemoaned that called by the community to the Federal Government for help had not yielded desired results.
The Monarch said: We‘ve cried out to FG, others, no help yet. We are at the bank of the Ekoli River and the place is always affected by seasonal flood. Every year, from June to October, this ugly incident continues.
“Right now, our primary school is seriously affected. We have lost the NYSC Lodge to erosion. The NYSC lodge that was very far from the bank of the river is now at the bank, basically eroded.
“Some of these environmental problems are natural while some are man-made. Our own is natural, it has been there and we have written to the Federal Government and interventionist agencies to come to our aid, but nothing has been done”, King Igodo added.
Commenting, the Chairman, Community Development Committee, CDC, of Obogoro, Ewili Nothingbad, that the remedy to the problem remained either to pile the community waterfront or open up a canal across the community, adding that if that is done, it will reduce the water current; lower the current and pressure that is directly coming to this community and causing erosion.
He clarified: “We are pleading with the state and federal governments to look into our plight. Look at the school building (pointing); Obogoro won’t have school again in the next two years. The NYSC Lodge is already going down.
“We are asking the state and federal governments to look into our plight; otherwise our community will be washed off and be erased from the map of Bayelsa State.”
In a similar tone of desperation, the Secretary of the community’s Council of Chiefs, Chief Unenadu Igwele, appealed to the governments to come to the community’s aid as the indigenes cannot tackle the erosion challenge alone.
He explained: “his project is too big for a community like this to handle. We have written to government. Even the Ecological Funds officials have been here on two occasions. Not just this community, they visited other places too.”