By G9ija
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on Sunday urged oil firms operating in the Niger Delta to assist people displaced by flood in the region.
Mr Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of NCDMB, made the appeal when he led the management to donate relief materials at the Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Igbogene area of Yenagoa, Bayelsa capital.
He urged oil industry operators, including oil services firms, contractors working in the region to come to assist hundreds of flood victims who in dire need of food, clothing, beddings and toiletries.
He said that NCDMB was complimenting the efforts of Bayelsa Government in providing food, toiletries and sundry items to flood victims camped at Amasoma, Tombia and Igbogene in Bayelsa.
Each of the three locations visited by the NCDMB received two light truck-load of mattresses, food items, beddings, disinfectants and sundry items.
He noted that natural disasters often challenged the society to care for the vulnerable people as humanitarian gestures were a universal phenomenon.
He urged the displaced persons to regard the disaster as a phase that would soon pass and advised them to be strong and optimistic to overcome the challenges.
Wabote, who handed the items over to leaderships of the camps, urged them to ensure that the items were distributed to the victims in dire need.
“We are concerned about the impact of the ongoing flood on the people and as a socially responsible agency of government, we are here to assist with these items; we appeal that the materials be distributed to the people who really need them.
“The number of people impacted from what we are seeing is so much and we felt the need to compliment the efforts of Bayelsa government,” Wabote said.
Responding, Bayelsa Commisioner for Environment, Mr Ebipatei Akpaingolo, applauded the NCDMB for responding to the humanitarian challenges caused by the flood and urged others to emulate the board.