Flood Renders 7,000 Homeless in Lagos

There was an ocean surge at the Alfa beach in Eti-Osa local council development area of Lagos state, rendering no fewer than 7,000 residents homeless.

The state government has however declared that it does not have the required resources to curtail the reoccurrence of the calamity as well as unable to ameliorate the plight of the affected Nigerians.

It has thus appealed to the federal government to wake to the responsibility, noting that the only the massive and enduring structure put in place by the state government could curb future reoccurrence of the calamity.

It would be recalled that there was similar surge about a month ago with both President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Babatunde Fashola separately visiting the place with pledges to assist the community, though with nothing meaningful coming out from the visits.

However, another ocean surge occurred two days ago, this time sweeping almost half of the whole area as it destroyed mostly the economic values of the place.

The state team comprising of the commissioners of environment, Mr. Tunji Bello and his counterpart in the waterfront infrastructure development, Prince Adesegun Oniru visited the devastated area yesterday where they lamented the plight of the people.

According to Oniru who blamed the surge on the effect of the climate change while addressing newsmen at the site, "this is a major surge; you all can see that all the tourism activities in this area have collapsed."

Asked about the lasting solution to the crisis, he said, "The answer to this place is same we did at the Lagos beach and of course we don't have such money again in Lagos; if the federal government does not respond to this, nature will not cease to wreck havoc."

Contributing, Bello said, "Lagos cannot afford to do it, only the federal government can do it because it has many and better resources including the ecological fund to attend to this kind of natural disaster."

Also addressing newsmen, the head of the community, Chief Yusuf Atewolara recalled that both President Jonathan and Fashola at different times visited them when they had similar case about a month ago, saying, "About a month ago, we had similar surge that claimed a great part of our land, the governor came while the president also visited us a week after, they hovered above us in chopper and at the end the president promised us assistance but up till now we have not received any assistance.

"But two days ago, another surge happened, this time it claimed triple what it claimed a month ago because it has destroyed the whole of the major road here; it has destroyed several million naira worth properties. We are hereby pleading with the federal government, state government and other agencies to come to our aid to save coastal areas; the whole road is gone," he decried.

Daily Champion

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