Flood: Ijebu Ode fish farmers lose N500m investment, beg FG, Gov Abiodun for help
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
Over two hundred fish farmers at Ikangba/Agoro, via Ijebu Ode in Odogbolu local government are currently counting their losses after a deadly flood hit their clusters of fish ponds on July 8 washing away an investment they put at over N500M.
The Chairman of the Ikanga Agoro Fish Farmers Association, Mr Lazarus Okole supported by the Secretary, Mr Oluyemi Oludayo and other executive members made this disclosure during a press briefing held at Ikangba on Friday.
Mr Okole said that the over two hundred affected farmers spread across five fish farmers clusters of Ifeoluwa, Asejere, Progressive, Joye and Kajola.
He explained that though the farmers had in the past experienced mild flooding but the magnitude and impact of the losses suffered could not be compared with that of the latest disaster saying that except the federal government and Gov Dapo Abiodun come to their rescue, many farmers might die from the debilitating shock of the huge losses.
Okole revealed that “the fish farmers believed that this flooding incident is unconnected with large volume of water channeled from the ongoing construction of Molipa/Imowo expressway by the state government to the already bad Ikangba road with no drainage and this go into Yemule river which overflows into our various fish ponds”.
He said to avert a re-occurrence of this tragedy, the state government must as a matter of priority fix the impassable Ikangba road with wide drainages on both sides while Yemule river is also dredged so that it could be wide and deep enough to accommodate the volume of water channeled into it from Molipa/Imowo expressway, Ijebu Ode.
Okole said that the communities around Ikangba, Agoro and its environs had equally in the recent past pleaded with the state government to help reconstruct the Ikangba road because of the economic importance of the road as well as the untold hardship the residents of the area are usually subjected to especially during the rainy season.
Okole said “as things stand now, we are in pains, many of us are operating on bank loans, we decided to go into fish farming as a way of empowering ourselves having searched everywhere for jobs but without one. We ventured into the business of fish farming because we don’t want be the idle hands that the devil can use, we have also been contributing to the provision of the proteinous intake of the populace, we have been contributing our quota to the economic development of our country but all these are gone now.
“We sincerely hereby beg President Muhammadu Buhari and our dear governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun to come to our aid. This could be in form of granting us soft loans to cushion the effect of this tragic losses so that our members can have something with which they can start all over again.
“We also plead that Gov Abiodun should help us fix Ikangba road and with drainages that are wide enough to handle the large volume of water coming from inside Ijebu Ode while Yemule river which serves as the collection point for this huge erosion is dredged to be wide and deep enough to collect this water”.
