Aggrieved flood victims from Isoko, Delta State, yesterday, stormed Asaba, the state capital, vowing to hold ‘mother of all protests’, if they are not compensated within 14 days.

The aggrieved victims, numbering over 100, who besieged the gate of the State Government House, alleged that there were corrupt practices in the manner they were demobilised from their respective Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps.

They alleged that several millions of naira meant for flood victims have found their way into private pockets.

Carrying placards with different inscriptions, one of the protesters, who simply gave his name as Ewoma, decried the alleged fraudulent and corrupt way some government officials in charge of the compensation carried out the exercise.

Ewoma said: “Even the St. Michaels College IDPs camp, Oleh, was full of discrimination and was used as a conduit to loot government treasury.

“An aide (names withheld) of a top Government official (names withheld) from the area, was larger than life at the camp, ejecting, rejecting and treating victims with disdain while accepting only victims from his area, Igbide community and Uzere community where his godfather hails from.

“We were not taken good care of, and when government officials came to Oleh to pay victims compensation of N50,000 and N100,000 each as the case may be, to our surprise, people that were being paid were strangers with strange faces, their family members, girlfriends who were never seen any day at the ICS camp.

“For every 20 names that they called, only two or three will come out among the real flood victims while those paid were never known to us or even seen in the camp. The payment the government officials came for was just a mere jamboree to amass illicit wealth to our detriment.

“The fraud and corruption that took place at the ICS IDP camp were enormous. Those government officials only came to pay themselves, not flood victims with what happened last week at the ICS IDP camp, Oleh.”

Chief Economic Adviser to the state governor, Mr. Kingsley Emu, who addressed the protesters, told them to remain calm and promised to take their complaints to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for appropriate and immediate action. (Vanguard)

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