Flood: Bayelsa commences closure of IDP camps

By Adeleye Kunle

As the flood that engulfed most communities in Bayelsa State gradually recedes, the government has commenced steps to close down the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

Its first port of call was the largest IDP camp located at the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion, which was shut down on Saturday.

Others in the Igbogene area of the state capital and other locations within the state capital would be closed on Sunday.

Before sending the flood victims home, those at the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion IDP centre first had an open-air thanksgiving.

The solemn ceremony was held ahead of the last meal that was served to the victims before they started returning to their various homes.

In his brief sermon, the vice chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the state and President of the Bayelsa Baptist Conference, Dr Abili Abili, took a sermon from Isaiah 43:1-2 and Genesis 9:10-15, where he assured the IDPs that God had promised that He would not destroy the earth with flood again.

“As you are going back home, remember God has promised that he would not destroy the world with flood as it happened in the days of Noah. Remember God and turn to Him,” he admonished them.

Meanwhile, the Commandant of the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion IDP Camp, Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, praised the state governor, Douye Diri, for his show of empathy, compassion and capacity in the management of this year’s flooding and victims in the state.

Koku-Obiyai, the Chief Whip of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, said over 12,000 IDPs were accommodated in the camp, stressing that the state government fed them daily for the 28 days the camping lasted without any death recorded