The attention of Kogi State government has been drawn to a report in The Sun newspaper of Friday, 12th October, 2012, captioned “We’re dying, flood victims cry in Kogi”.
The report, in essence, alleged that the State government has inflated both the figures of those affected and the amount of property destroyed by the current flood disaster in the State.
The report also claimed, among others, that the victims are starving in the camps, while some government officials and greedy individuals have taken advantage of the flood disaster to enrich themselves, and that more than 30 fake refugee camps have been created across the State to divert the funds and materials meant for the victims.
Government wishes to state categorically that the entire report is preposterous, and smirks of mischief, ignorance and a clandestine attempt by the reporter, Emmanuel Adeyemi, for reasons best known to him, to discredit the strenuous efforts of the State government to tackle the monumental disaster that has befallen the State.
Adeyemi’s mischief in this report is so obvious in that he published these wild allegations against the State government without caring to speak to any official of government to clarify or confirm any of the issues. This is in spite of the fact that he has been a reporter in the State for several years, and he is familiar with those he could have contacted.
These include, the Deputy Governor, who is the Chairman of the Flood Disaster Management Committee, the Commissioner for Information, the Head of the State Emergency Management Agency, The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, or even the Head of the Information Centre on the Flood disaster, from whom he has been receiving Press Releases regularly since the advent of the flood.
Adeyemi claimed that the estimated two billion Naira worth of property destroyed was exaggerated.
This is laughable because the estimate was given before the flood became full-blown. Now that it is known that the flood submerged the whole of Ibaji Local Government Area, and substantial parts of Lokoja, Bassa, Idah, Kogi, while other LGAs, namely, Ajaokuta, Igalamela Odolu, Ofu and Omala are also affected, anyone could imagine the cost of the property destroyed.
In Lokoja alone, the buildings sub-merged by the flood, which are more than 200, must be worth more than a billion Naira, this is not to talk of the houses, farmlands, roads and other property destroyed in eight other LGAs.
As for Adeyemi’s claim that the State government said two million people were affected, only he knows where he got the figure from, because no government official had said two million people were affected.
The figure worked out by the State and Federal Emergency Management Agencies, which has been widely reported in the media, is about 650,000 people.
Adeyemi spoke about fake refugee camps without mentioning where they are located. He claimed to have spoken to many victims in the camp who are starving, without giving their clear identity or even showing the picture of any of them, in this digital age.
This is the same camp visited by His Excellency, President Goodluck Janathan this Thursday, and no one carried placards or protested.
These are the camps visited frequently by Governor Idris Wada and his Deputy, Yomi Awoniyi, and no one protested.
These are the same camps visited by many other eminent citizens of Kogi and the country, and no one griped or grumbled.
In fact, we found it ludicrous to discover that when we checked through the list of registered victims in the three camps in Lokoja, none of the names mentioned by Adeyemi as his interviewees was in the list.
Is this not a case of barefaced sabotage to achieve a yet-to- be-ascertained end?
He equally spoke of the huge amount collected by the State government as not reflecting in the feeding pattern of the people.
This, indeed, shows that he is totally ignorant of what it takes, and what the State needs to enable it to rehabilitate the people when the flood is over; people who have no homes or means of livelihood anymore.
What the State government would not doubt, and which is being tackled already, is that there would be pockets of fake people in the camps who were not affected by the flood, our society being what it is.
Such people may be taking free food, drugs and beddings today, but when the flood recedes, and everyone is called to identify his residence, their deception and duplicity will be over.
It is interesting to note that this is the second time Emmanuel Adeyemi would write trash on the unfortunate incident of the flood in our State.
The first time was in the Sunday Sun of 30th September, during which he claimed to have spoken to people who claimed that a whole family was being fed on N30 bread; the same N30 bread he repeated in this his second treatise.
Whatever the grouse or the intention of Adeyemi in labouring so hard in the negative direction to rubbish the State government, particularly in this trying period, he cannot succeed, as he can never distract its focus to serve the people of the State with fairness equity and justice.
Let no one be deceived, Kogi State government is doing what is expected of it, and to the best of available opportunities and resources as concerns the management of the grievous flood disaster.
No one would be allowed to take advantage of this disaster to curry unmerited favour, resources or attention.
Signed
Hon. Yabagi Bologi
Commissioner for Information, Kogi State
