A 70 years old pensioner, Chief Alimi Oyetoke has sent a save our soul [SOS] appeal to the Kogi State government to come to his aid over his building that was destroyed by rainstorm last week in Lokoja, Kogi State.
Oyetoke in a chat with THISDAY explained that the rainstorm which destroyed his building was caused by the abandoned former fertilizer depot owned by the state ministry of agriculture and natural resources, which shared the same fence with his house.
According to him, “for sometime the fertilizer depot was abandon and some officials of the ministry came to remove the roof of the warehouse which exposed the store to a lot of environmental hazard; so on this fateful day at about 2am when the rain started falling, accompanied with heavy storm, part of the warehouse collapse into my own house and in the process, destroyed my building, including two stores in my compound which I used to store some of my properties.
“As a result of the disaster I have lost properties worth millions of naira which I acquired over the years using my hard earned meagre salaries as a civil servant. To my surprise, even the officials of the ministry of agriculture have refused to clear the debris of the collapsed fertilizer depot which is now causing serious concern to us as parents because little children maybe hurt when playing around”, he explained.
To this end, he appealed to the state government to come to his assistance in order for him to be able to recover the lost properties, stressing that, “as a pensioner where will I have the money to replace my destroyed properties? I need the assistance of the state government very fast”.
When our correspondent visited the site of the old fertilizer depot it was observed that an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, “National Board for Technology Incubator” erected a big signpost on the premises and no officials of the agency was sighted.
Similarly, when THISDAY visited the ministry of agriculture, top officials of the ministry refused to speak with our correspondent, insisting that it was only the commissioner who was allowed by law to comment, but presently the state is without cabinet as the state governor Idris Wada dissolved the state executive council last two weeks.
