…offer hope to the IDPs with words of encouragement, palliatives and 50m donation
The Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, His Excellency, Chief Timipre Sylva and wife, Her Excellency, (Dr) Mrs Alanyingi Sylva welcomed Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State as the Lagos Central Senator toured IDP camps in the State.
Senator Tinubu who came in the company of Her Excellency Hajiya Fatima Nana Shettima, wife of the Vice Presidential Candidate of the APC, His Excellency Kashim Shettima, described the devastating effects of the flood in the State as terrible and heartbreaking.
Speaking at the IDP camp at the Ox-Bow lake Parvillion in Yenagoa, Senator Tinubu emphasized that the visit was strictly on humanitarian grounds to personally empathize with Bayelsans over the devastation brought by the flood and to extend a hand of assistance. ‘We have come to offer the little help we can. Asides drugs and medical equipments, food, and wrappers and other items I am also donating the sum of 50million naira to the state’
‘The donation is a recapitulation for businesses as some businesses were affected by the flood’
Senator Tinubu explained that the money was for a thousand individuals receiving Fifty Thousand Naira each as a post-flood intervention and the process would be managed by the Hon. Minister of State, Petroleum Resources.
‘We have come here to empathize with you. We thank the Honourable Minister and his wife, whom we call “mama Petroleum”. We thank them sincerely for what they have been doing and we greet the people of Bayelsa state. We know what has come upon this land and we come with glad tidings’
Responding to journalists in Yenagoa, Her Excellency Alanyingi Sylva described the situation as delicate and a time for the best of our humanity to be exhibited. She hailed Bayelsans for holding fort and stated that there is some solace in the fact that help is arriving and that the worst phase is behind.
In his response at the Igbogene IDP camp, Sylva commended the resilience of Bayelsans, the thoroughness of the camp coordinators and the orderliness of the people, Bayelsans in general which has kept complete anarchy at bay.
Sylva thanked Senator Mrs Oluremi Tinubu and Hajiya Fatima Kashim Shettima for the visit and assured them that it is a moment Bayelsans will always affectionately remember.
In a brief visit to the Obenibe of Epie Kingdom, His Royal Majesty King Malla Sasime, the Monarch expressed gratitude ‘these acts of humanity are what it takes a society to actually grow. We appreciate you and the Honourable Minister so much for remembering our people at this critical time. Thank you and may God bless you’
A day before, on Thursday, the Honourae Minister kickstarted a broad, state-wide medical outreach while, accompanied by Engr. Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, IDP camps were visited and necessary palliatives were distributed.
The Honourable Minister has, however, called for a non-partisan, lasting, more fundamental solution to the annual floods in Bayelsa State.
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