Port Harcourt. Jan. 28, 2024 – The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has started distributing palliatives to flood victims in eight local government areas of Rivers State.
Tony Okocha, the Rivers State Representative on NDDC Board. said the gesture was to help the victims to recover from their losses.
He said this during the presentation of the relief materials to the flood victims in Port Harcourt.
Okocha said that each of the 24 trucks carrying the palliatives contained 47 different items.
He said the items were meant to cushion the effects of the flood on the victims, adding that the distribution of the materials was one of the contributions of the NDDC as a responsive interventionist agency.
“I stand on behalf of the Chairman of the board of the NDDC and the Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, who is in-charge of the day-to-day running of the affairs of the Commission, to say to you that it is our resolve that Rivers State and Niger Delta will have a new lease of life.
“We are there to defend and protect all projects in the Renewed Hope Agenda, the mantra on which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ascended the leadership of this country. President Tinubu has very serious concern about the welfare of Nigerians. Today is one of those demonstrations of the President’s responsiveness to the problems of Nigerians.”
He urged the local government chairmen to ensure impartial and judicious distribution of the relief materials to flood victims in Tai, Asari/Toru, Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba/ Egbema/Ndoni, Abua/Odual, Akuku-Toru and Andoni local government areas.
Okocha stressed the importance of giving priority to beneficiaries at the grassroots, who he said, bore the brunt of the destruction.
Theophilus Allagoa, the Rivers State Director of NNDC, said the delay in the delivery of relief materials to the 2023 flood victims was due to the change in the NDDC board and management.
He said that NDDC decided to start the distribution of the materials to the worst hit local government areas in Rivers.
Allagoa said the commission had different items to distribute and urged the communities to report to NDDC if the materials did not get to them. (GBN)
