Gov. Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti state has assured residents, whose properties were destroyed by rainstorms, that the government won’t abandon them to suffer at this trying time.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oyebanji gave the assurance on Monday when he inspected over 100 buildings affected by rainstorms in Iyin-Ekiti, Ifaki-Ekiti and Usi-Ekiti.
He said that the government would provide relief materials to the victims to rebuild their damaged structures, regretting how citizens were subjected to harrowing experiences of homelessness due to the incident in many parts of the state.
Oyebanji, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Monisade Afuye, restated the imperative of landlords conducting regular maintenance on their structures to abate the recurrent cases of building collapse during heavy downpours.
He said that embracement of maintenance culture, and tree planting around residential buildings to break heavy windstorms, were two strategic panaceas to avert traumatising occurrences.
The governor appealed to the traditional rulers to spread the gospel of tree plating during their council meetings so that the policy being propagated by the government could sink deeper into the minds of the people.
Oyebanji said that the staff of the Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency would visit the affected communities to undertake a thorough enumeration of the damaged structures and landlords affected to guide the government in its intervention.
Expressing sadness over the destruction, the Oluyin of Iyin-Ekiti, Oba Adeniyi Ajakaye, commended the state government for the quick response.
He said that the words of the governor would bring succour to the distraught victims.
His counterpart, the Olufaki of Ifaki-Ekiti, Oba Adegbenro Falore, also described as frightening the level of havoc caused by the rainstorm in his town.
According to him, the residents most affected in his community were aged and poor citizens, who were financially incapacitated.
Oba Adegbenro said that the most saddening scenario to him was the damage to the home of a 100-year-old blind woman.
“We are happy that the governor is a kindhearted man, who has always been listening to our requests and I know that he won’t let us down.
“We are going to escalate the campaign for maintenance culture on buildings and tree planting here during our council meetings.
“We are also assuring our governor that we will continue to support all his policies and programmes”, Oba Adegbenro said.
