St. Vincent De Paul Home for the Old and Destitutes said that inmates of the home were faced with threats of erosion and flooding due to the blockade of water channels around their residential headquarters at Alo Street in Abakaliki.
Mr John Lekpa, Chairman of the home disclosed this on Wednesday in Abakaliki while interacting with members of Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ebonyi when they visited the home and donated food items to inmates.Lekpa lamented that the flood if not controlled by ensuring the proper channelisation of water around the headquarters might render them homeless.
The chairman who appreciate members of the chapel for the visit urged them to use their various platforms to draw the attention of relevant agencies of government to menace of flooding to the home.The destitute said the frequent flood they witness in the residential quarters have put them in danger and therefore called for urgent action to address the menace.
“You are the voice of the voiceless, we are having challenges in this home. If you look around our premises, you will see how bad it is because of flood that has been disturbing us since the premises was blocked with fence by government that has taken over part of the premises. “Since the encroachment of our premises, there has been serious flood in our premises whenever it rains.
“The government just came and barricaded our premises and it has been causing flood in our premises; we can’t sleep whenever it rains because everywhere is usually flooded. “We don’t know where to go to.
Thank God you people are here and you are the only people we can run to and the world will hear our cry. “Help us and pass this information to the government; we are part of this state, we are their children, we are their brothers and sisters; the old and destitute in this area need help.
“If this small portion of the land is taking away from us by the government because we don’t have money to develop it, where do we run to? “Today, they want to takeover our small portion of land that we use for garden, the land has been barricaded and flood has continued to disturb us.
I am begging you people to help us,” Lekpa said.A female inmate who spoke on the condition of anonymity alleged that thieves usually broke into the premises at night to steal food and other valuables donated to inmates by good spirited members of the public.She appealed to the government to beef up security around the headquarters to contain the activities of the hoodlums.
Mr Samson Nwafor, chairman of the chapel in a brief remark assured that the journalists would continue to remember the inmates by visiting them always.He said: “We will continue to visit you people from time to time because it shows love; it shows oneness and it shows that we have you people in mind.”
