Three children have reportedly died after flood swept through Polobubo (Teskelewu) Community in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.
The victims included a girl and two boys Annabel, Gift and Praise-God.
In fact, Gift and Praise-God are saud to be children of one Mr. David Suku.
The were aged between two, four and five years respectively. Two of the children were born to separate families.
In a chat with Our Correspondent, the bereaved parents confirmed that they lost their children who stepped who were playing in the flood.
They said during play, the children fell in the waters and were washed away by the ravaging flood.
The parents added that the remains of the deceased were found later.
Mr. David Suku, who lost two of his children to the flood said, “the water was too much, so as the child fell into the water, nobody was around to rescue him.
“Before we could find him, he was already dead. The last flood, one died, this one another one has died, if there is anything government can do for us, they should do it. Losing a second child to the flood is too much for me.”
Mrs. Doris Suku said, “I was at home when the child went out to play. I thought he was at my brother’s wife’s place. I didn’t see him, so I went to ask them.
“They said he had returned home and I told them, no, I haven’t seen him. We looked for him. It was in the morning, we saw him already dead.”
Mr. Enoch Kane, father of the other victim said, “She died on August 16. I lost my daughter to the flood. She walked to the backyard, unknowing to me and fell into the water. We looked for her, only to find her in the water, already dead. She was two years old and wasn’t used to swimming.”
Pobubou Community has called on the Federal Government to urgently direct Chevron Nigeria Limited to dredge the inland waterways, while bemoaning the loss of lives to the flood.
The people bearing placards with inscriptions such as, “No farm, no food because of flood. Government help us; government come to our aid, flood has damaged our properties, flood has damaged all our church instruments,” charged government at all levels, as well as the international community to intervene.
Secretary-General of Polobubo National Council, Mr. Midwest Kukuru described the development as “agonizing, harrowing and disturbing,” further accusing Chevron of being responsible for the flood disaster.
He explained that the river in the community used to be a “very deep fresh water habitat, until few years after the advent of oil companies, particularly Chevron.
“This problem is caused by Chevron as a result of the canal that was dug into the Atlantic Ocean.
“The silts from the ocean come through the canal and are deposited in this river. During dry season this river is less than one meter. Because it is silted, when the rain falls the water has nowhere to go than to begin to overflow the banks, go into houses and begin to cause problems. This, in a nutshell, is the cause of it.
“We are appealing to the governments, local, state, federal and even the world, to prevail on Chevron to open up this our river for us. First of all, block that canal that they dig to the Atlantic ocean, then dig the whole of this river. Get it to the normal depth that it was before.
“Then, there are areas they need to fill with sand for this community to relocate to because we have study reports that say that the whole of the community is sitting below sea level.
“For those reasons, we are asking the world, the federal government, to urgently prevail on Chevron to reclaim a particular place for Tsekelewu-Polububo people to stay on. Having dredged it, we need it piled so we don’t have this yearly problem.
“The flood we had last year was less than what we have now. It is expected that by next year, it is going to be far greater than what we have today. Now the people cannot lay hands on anything”.
When contacted, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Adeyinka Adeleke, in telephone chat with Our Correspondent confirmed the report saying,” The victims are two. One is three year old and one is four year old. But it was not reported
