Kogi flood victims ‘invade’ Delta

HUNDREDS of victims of the flood disaster in Kogi State are reportedly trooping to Delta State, where they believe Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is more compassionate in the aftermath of  the natural calamity.
Just two days ago,  flood victims in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, besieged the streets, accusing the state government of abandoning them for over one week, in spite of huge funds and relief materials collected on their behalf.
The protesters, some of who wore overcast faces,  a number dressed in threadbare  dresses , others had their babies strapped behind them,  alleged that government officials had diverted food items meant for them into private use.
Unknown to the Kogi flood victims,  majority of the flood camps in Delta  were in the process of winding up and  the victims were already  returning home to restart life.
Delta State Committee of Flood, headed by Justice Francis Tabai (rtd), ran into some of the victims from Kogi barely 24 hours after its inauguration. The committee members met the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, from Kogi pleading desperately with officials at the Illah camp, Illah in  Oshimili North Local Government Area, to allow them in, as they were hungry.
A source told Sunday Vanguard, “The committee noticed over 100 women and children fresh presumably IDPs locked outside the gate of the camp, as officials refused them in on the grounds that the camp was winding up and there were no relief materials for their  upkeep”.
The victims told members of the committee that they were from Kogi and needed care, but they were advised to to go to Asaba or any other designated camp close to them for registration, as the Illah camp was, indeed, winding up.
A member of the committee said: “As at when we visited Illah flood victims’ camp, there were only 45 families remaining in the said camp. The development we were told by officials of the camp  was quite understandable due to the fact that majority of the said IDPs are farmers and fishermen/women from neighbouring Kogi and Anambra states, who are very eager to return to their trades, especially since now is the peak period of their trade.”