Flood: Senator Amange faults Humanitarian Affairs Minister Hajiya Sadiya Farouq over comments on Bayelsa flood disaster
An Elder Statesman, Member of the Bayelsa Elders Forum and Chairman of the Nembe- Se Divisional Chief’s Council, Senator Nimi Barigha-Amange has lambasted the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq on her comments at the 56th session of the State House Press Briefing in Abuja by the Presidential Communication Team where she said:” Bayelsa was not among the ten worst hit States by the flood disaster in the Federation “.
The Elder Statesman described the Minister’s statement as an aberration, lacking the ice of truth and reality, wicked, unfriendly, politically immature and insincere to the plights of the Niger Delta people especially those in Bayelsa State.Senator Nimi Barigha-Amange said he was further shocked with the Ministry’s Chief Executive comparison between Bayelsa and listing of Jigawa States as worst hit during the 2022 flood disaster.
Senator Amange called on the Presidency to immediately caution the actions of the Zamfara born Minister and call her to retract her statement pointing out that her unguided statements and actions remains inhuman and is capable of causing disastisfaction between the electorate and the faith of APC in the State especially as election draws closer.
The APC Chieftain wondered how the same Minister in her October 2022 report recorded that: “Bayelsa had 58 deaths, 81 injured persons, over 24 thousand affected persons and 26,509 damaged home by the flood disaster” before making a U- turn in her actions. As he queried that the Minister said she erected over 44 temporary shelters in 22 States affected by the flood disaster but deliberately excluded Bayelsa State in the distribution of relief materials according to her records.
The Chairman of Nembe-Se Council of Chiefs wondered that Jigawa State was never cut off from it’s neighbouring States of Yobe, Bauchi, Kano and Katsina unlike Bayelsa State that passed through difficulty to receive items as a result of the road calamity along the Ahoada to Patani, Ughele axis of the East West road completely overwhelmed by the flood disaster.
The Senator pointed out that till date a liter of petrol is sold at above 400 naira as against the stipulated price which even rose to 1000 naira per liter at the peak of the flood. Food items and other services skyrocketing from 1,000 naira for a bucket of the popular stable food( garri) to 2,500 naira among other items.
The Senator tasked the Minister to personally visit Bayelsa internally displaced persons ( IDP) camps as well as tour the State with a canoe to get first hand information before berating the woos of the masses by making unwarranted statement and hate speech against the Niger Delta people capable to infuriate the people against the peace loving President Muhhamadu Buhari. The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Federal Government.
About Author
