Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on the Federal Government and its relevant agencies to save Odi community in the Kolokuma/ Opokuma Local Government of Bayelsa State from ravaging coastal erosion and flooding.
Also, the leadership of Odi has debunked claims in some quarters that the ongoing remedial work on a deplorable portion of the community’s shoreline destroyed by the monster 2022 floods disaster was being carried out by the Federal Government.
The assistant secretary, Odi Council of Chiefs, Obudah Capecoast; Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman, Ogboin Erekemefa; and the youth president, Inebiri Miepamo, insisted that the Governor Douye Diri-led administration awarded the contract for the project.
They explained that the damaged portion under protection work was a major coastal route through which the ancient Ijaw settlement located on the fringes of the River Nun was submerged during last year’s catastrophic floods.
Alagoa Morris, Head of ERA/FoEN office in Bayelsa, who led a team on an advocacy visit to the community on Saturday, said in an interview that Odi deserved shoreline protection to prevent further loss of lives and property resulting from ecological disasters.
He noted apart from oil industry-induced pollution in the Niger Delta, coastal erosion and flooding were one of the prevailing plights of many communities in the state.
Morris said, “The last time we visited Odi was when about seven houses or so were washed into the Nun River. What I have seen here is a remedial work for a job that the state government had done before, and I think more needs to be done though we commend the state government for this remedial work.
“We need Odi to be protected along its shoreline so as to save the community from further loss of land, landed property and lives.
“Apart from the need for the state government to do more, I want the Federal Government’s interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and Ecological Fund to come in to protect Odi community shoreline to save the community from further loss of lives and property.”
While urging the Federal Government to “also reclaim lost land in Odi community”, the environmental and community rights activist said that ERA/FoEN would not relent in its commitment to sustainable environment for communities and their people.
Speaking in separate interviews, Capecoast, Erekemefa and Miepamo, expressed appreciation to Governor Diri for embarking on the project to give the community some respite from ecological menaces, saying the people were happy and supporting the initiative.
They also lauded the immediate-past lawmaker that represented the area in the state House of Assembly for three consecutive terms, Tonye Isenah, for the role he played and drawing the government’s attention to the decades-long problem.
Debunking the insinuation that the Federal Government was in charge of the shoreline work, Erekemefa said, “Our Governor Senator Douye Diri is working on it. He is doing it. We were hearing rumours that it is the Federal Government that is doing it. The Federal Government has not come into the matter. It is the state government that is trying to assist the community.”
