Akwa Ibom State government has commended the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for responding to the plights of no fewer than 200 fishermen affected by the raging flood in the state.
The state commissioner for agriculture, Dr Offiong Offor, who spoke in an interview with correspondents in Uyo, the state capital yesterday listed the items to include boats and other gears.
According to Offor, the state government also assisted with the other logistics for the lifting of the boats and other components, frowned at criticisms by people alleging the boats were substandard.
He wondered why people should describe the boats as unfit when the benefitting fish farmers did not complain about the conditions of the facilities.
The commissioner said “same size and quality of boats were also supplied by NEMA to other States as part of the intervention without complaints from those States”.
“It is not true that the boats are substandard. They are not substandard; If they are good in Rivers and Bayelsa, they will also be good in Akwa Ibom.
“What they gave to Rivers and Bayelsa which have more Riverine areas were the same thing they gave to Akwa Ibom and if the farmers in those other States are using them then they shouldn’t have shortchanged us.
“So, when people complain that the boats were substandard, it is not true. NEMA will not give anything that it’s substandard. Governor Udom Emmanuel is a man of excellence and even if they have given substandard things, the Governor will not allow us to share it. The things were also certified by our different directorates to be good.
“Then the boats were in different sizes, some for small waters and others for larger bodies of waters and they have started using them.
But the interventions are in degrees and batches and the farmers that the size of boats supplied were useful for benefitted from them while others will be addressed and attended to in subsequent interventions”, the commissioner said.
She called for understanding and constructive criticism from indigenes and residents of the state on government programmes and policies.
