Ayetoro, an oil producing community in Ondo State, is on the verge of going into extinction. For more than a decade, the people have watched helplessly as their homes, means of livelihood and valuables are destroyed by ocean surge.
Many elderly members of the community are said to have died of shock after losing all they had laboured for because of the problem.
The people are pained that the federal government has continued to earn revenue from the community through oil exploration but has flagrantly ignored their pleas for help, thenationonlineng.net reports.
When Kayode Okenla, an indigene of Ayetoro, a riverine community in Ondo State completed the construction of his seven-bedroom apartment recently, it was in the hope that he would never worry again about paying rent. Like a bed set free from the hunter’s snare, he leaped in ecstasy, punching the air repeatedly in full admiration of his personal accomplishment.
“This is great!” he said gleefully to himself. His status also changed instantly as friends, associates and family members teased him with the title of the latest landlord in town.
But his joy was short-lived as an ocean surge, a menace the community has contended with for more than a decade reared its ugly head again. Before his very eyes, Kayode watched helplessly as the sea launched a ferocious attack on his exquisite building, sweeping away everything in it with the force of a hurricane.
“From a proud owner of a well-furnished seven-bedroom building that cost me more than N7 million, I have suddenly become homeless,” he said regretfully. “I have already relocated to my mother’s house, but I suffered high blood pressure after the incident.”
Besides the building, Kayode also lost some fish ponds he had in the premises as well as his farm located close to the building.
“It was the first time I would experience a loss of that magnitude. Everything I lost put together would be worth more than N15 million,” he said.
Checks made across the community revealed that the hitherto lively area had become a shadow of itself. The sea, which had provided many of them with means of livelihood, had turned against them like a dreaded foe. Carcasses of buildings destroyed by the sea surge littered the area.
And it would seem that the sea was not done yet with its rage in spite of the enormous havoc it had wreaked. The more it looked at its victims, the more furious and itchy it appeared set to do more damage.
At regular intervals, waters from the sea converge on a spot like street gangsters and fiercely barge into the community. Each time they do, more houses and other valuables are destroyed, more residents are displaced and more tears rolled down the cheeks of the people.
For Kayode, the possibility of building another house is high because he is a young man. But the same cannot be said of 74-year-old Pa Emmanuel Lemamu who also lost the house he had struggled to build during his youthful days.
“I have become a refugee in my own land. I am no more in my own house. I am telling you the truth and nothing but the truth. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed in Ayetoro now. I built my house in 1956 but when the sea incursion came, it pulled down the building,” he said with a grimace.
“The damage is going on as we speak. Many people are packing the few of their belongings they can salvage from their houses destroyed by the sea incursion. Many of them are looking for where to stay now. I have been squatting in a friend’s house with my wife and children.
“We don’t have joy here in Ayetoro. We can’t sleep all night because we have to stay awake to guard our families and our few belongings from being swept away when the sea rages.”
Pa Lemmamu, who is the head of Paul Apostle Church, is fortunate to be among the survivors. Many of his peers who had similar experience were said to have developed high blood pressure and died.
“Many old people who were victims have died. It was high blood pressure that caused their death. Many who lost their buildings and valuables to the incursion have died because they didn’t know where to start from again.
“Many of them were worried over where to get money to build another house, because the cost of building was not so high back then compared to what obtains now. To build a house in Ayetoro now will cost millions and not thousands as it was in the past.”
The septuagenarian’s assertion was corroborated by the youths’ secretary in the community, Emmanuel Aralu.
Aralu said: “We lost one person to the incursion about four or five years ago, but it has claimed many lives indirectly. By this I mean that many men and women of 60 and 70 years and above who had their buildings destroyed by the sea incursion developed high blood pressure and died.
“For younger victims there is still hope that they can bounce back and build another house. But for old people, there is little or no hope of bouncing back. Before their own eyes, they watched all they had laboured for washed away by the sea incursion.
“People who had large houses suddenly turned to squatting in one-room apartments. Psychologically they are down. Such people are automatically half human beings. Many of them developed high blood pressure and other illnesses and died as I earlier said.
“That is why I said the death rate in the community has increased as a result of the incessant incursion of the sea.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
