A rampaging flood has forced the traditional ruler of Abala Unor and Abala Obodo in Ndokwa East local government area of Delta State, Igwe Fredrick Chukwulobe Egbunkonye 111, to relocate to Asaba, as his palace has gone under water.
The community has equally been submerged by the flood following the overflow of the banks of the River Niger which has left a greater part of Abala Kingdom deserted.
In his lamentation, the monarch said past experience had shown that those who fled the community in the wake of previous flooding, returned to meet their houses burgled and their crops harvested by unknown persons
Igwe Egbunkonye therefore called on the state and federal governments as well as corporate organisations to assist the flood victims, some of whom were not willing to leave their ancestral homes.
He also urged the federal government to urgently commence the dredging of the River Niger, as a solution to the perennial flooding of the coastal areas of the state, pointing out that property worth millions of naira were being lost to the natural disaster every year in Abala Kingdom.
Others who spoke on the incident included the Onowu of Abala, Chief Chike Ugwummadu; Chinyelugo 1 of Abala, Chief Edozie Obi; Oforchinyelu of Abala, Chief Fabian Okiah; the palace secretary, Chief Michael Dialor; the president-general of Abala Development Union, Elder Fidelis Ogbuji and the youth leader, Comrade Ifeanyi Ogbolu.
