Osun flood: NOA writes Buhari, NEMA for emergency action

Following the flood that wreaked havoc in Osun State on Tuesday, the National Orientation Agency in the state has forwarded a special report on the disaster to President Muhammadu Buhari for urgent attention.
The Director of NOA in the state, Dr. Lawrence Martins, disclosed this while speaking on a radio programme monitored in Osogbo, the state capital, on Thursday.
A torrential rain had resulted in the flooding of some parts of the state, killing some residents and destroying property worth millions of Naira as well as farmlands.
Residents of the affected areas like Oke Oniti, Obate, Rasco, among others, were thrown into agony as they were rendered homeless.
Residents claimed unspecified number of persons were swept away by the flood.
On Wednesday morning, the lifeless body of a 60-year-old man, Ebenezer Olabode, was recovered at the bank of River Okooko in Oke Oniti area of Osogbo, hours after the flood swept him away while driving.
Apparently to draw the Federal Government’s attention to the tragic development, the agency said it had already written a special report to the Presidency on the incident.
Martins also noted that NOA in the state had forwarded its report to the authorities of NEMA, saying the situation called for necessary emergency actions.
He said, “On the recent flood in some parts of Osun, we have sent a special report to President Muhammadu Buhari and NEMA. We always do this when there is a situation that requires emergency. We take government to the people and the people to the government.” Attributing the cause of the flood to dumping of waste on waterways, including rivers and streams by residents, Martins asked the people of the state to stop perpetrating such act.
He, therefore, appealed to Governor Rauf Aregbesola to order the dredging of rivers in the state to avert the occurrence of a disaster in future.
“NOA has asked Governor Aregbesola to do routine maintenance of waterways and dredging of rivers. If Governor Aregbesola had not dredged rivers in 2011, the flood would have been worse.
“The governor said he would demolish buildings and other structures at river banks when he visited the affected areas and the victims. But people should stop dumping of refuse in water ways,” the NOA state director said.