By Olamide Francis
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday distributed relief materials to support persons affected by flood last year in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
The materials, which include food and non-food items, were presented by NEMA Head of Operations, Edo State, Mr Yusuf Dahiru to the Ughelli North Local Government Council HPM, Mr Timothy Ase and some community leaders.
Speaking to our correspondent, Mr Dahiru said the items were not meant to pay back what the people suffered, but to show that government was concerned about their plight and to cushion the impact of the flood on them.
Mr Dahiru disclosed that 16 local government area of the state would benefit from the relief materials, adding that Oshimili North and South, and Warri North had received theirs.
“We are here to distribute relief materials to victims affected by flood in the year 2020 in Ughelli North. We are actually doing it in 16 local government areas.
“We have started two days ago in Asaba, and we have distributed to Oshimili North and South, and Warri North. Today we are in Ughelli North and we are going to proceed from here to Patani,” he stated.
The NEMA Head of Operations, who encouraged the flood victims to accept the relief materials in good faith and make good use of them, saying that modalities had been put in place to ensure that the materials were effectively distributed amongst the people.
The President General of Uwheru Kingdom, Chief Cassidy Akpedafe, who was there to receive for his community, thanked God for the provision and NEMA for remembering them.
Chief Akpedafe commended the Federal Government for the gesture but, however, added that what government brought was too few to accommodate the entire Uwheru people for their huge loss to the flood. Some of the relief materials included bags of rice, beans, garri, and tin tomatoes.
The non-food items are bundles of zinc, mosquito nets, mattresses, buckets, bags of cement, and clothings, among others.