Sylvester Idowu in Warri
Relief items worth N150 million have been donated to flood victims in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States by the former leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo )also known as Tompolo).
Ekpemupolo, who is also the president of Ekpemupolo Foundation, made the donations yesterday through his Foundation, as part of efforts to assuage the plights of those affected by the recent devastating flood.
The relief materials included 2,400 bags of rice, 100 bags of beans, 200 bags of Garri, 5,000 tubers of yam, 200 kegs of palm oil, 600 kegs of groundnut oil and 2,000 cartons of noodles.
The Executive Secretary of the Foundation, Dr. Paul Bebenimibo, while handing over the relief items to representatives of the impacted areas in Warri, Delta State, said the Foundation has been in the business of rendering assistance to the “less-privileged” since the previous flood in 2012.
Bebenimibo said: “We have good tidings from the president and chairman of Tompolo Foundation. It’s no longer news that our country was greeted with massive flood, and the impact was overwhelming. The people have been in disarray in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta States.
“The Tompolo Foundation was established to cater for the less privileged. We have been in this mission for about 10 years. Specifically, sometime in 2012, a similar flood happened and the Foundation organised and provided palliatives for the people. And this year, we have come again to do our bit.
“I want to inform you that the president and chairman of Tompolo Foundation has approved palliative worth N150 million to be distributed to the good people of Bayelsa, Rivers, and Delta States.
“That’s why I had earlier recognised the people that are representing these states, and we are here to handover the items to the beneficiaries so that they can move them to their destinations and distribute them to the affected people.”
He listed the local government areas to benefit from the palliatives to include Ahoada West and East LGAs in Rivers State; Burutu, Bomadi, Patani LGAs, as well as impacted communities across Isoko, Urhobo and Ndokwa nations in Delta State, and seven affected council areas in Bayelsa State.
Bebenimibo noted that Bayelsa, as one of the highly impacted states in the country, would get 600 bags of rice.
Representative of Bayelsa State and member representing constituency IV, Southern Ijaw LGA, Chief (Hon.) MacDonald Igbadiwei, thanked the Foundation for coming to the aid of the victims in his state.
He charged other well-meaning Nigerians to emulate the gesture.
Others who received the items on behalf of victims in Delta State were chairmen of Bomadi, Burutu and Patani council areas; first vice president of Isoko Development Union Worldwide, Crown Prince Desmond Ogbaudu (Isoko nation); Executive Director Social Services, DESOPADEC, Achudume Sunday (Ndokwa nation); and the Commissioner representing Urhobo ethnic nationality in DESOPADEC, Olorogun Vincent Oyibode.
