Following the flooding crisis devastating the state, Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Duoye Diri, has ordered a seven-day holiday for government employees.
Governor Diri stated in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday morning that the flood is a natural disaster that has to varying degrees hit many other States in the country.
According to him, more than 300 communities in the state’s almost one million residents have experienced internal displacement, and several fatalities have also been reported.
However, as workers on essential duty are still obliged to do their duties, Diri pointed out that the work-free week does not apply to them.
The governor claimed that the state was in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, with over a million people forced to flee their homes in the local government areas of Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe, and Kolokuma Opokuma, in addition to businesses closing, homes being lost, and farmlands being destroyed.
“I hereby direct all public servants except those on essential duties to be given time off from work for the next one week,” the governor said.
“Let me make a special appeal to vendors, particularly of fuel, food, water and pharmaceuticals not to exploit the situation. We must be our brothers’ keepers.
“Government has also observed that at such moments of distress, some miscreants take advantage of the vulnerable population to commit crimes. Let me make it clear that we will continue to have zero tolerance for crime and criminality.”
The state-owned Niger Delta University in Amassoma, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital in Okolobiri, and the University of Africa in Toru-Orua, among other important pieces of infrastructure, he claimed, have all been adversely impacted.
Without exaggeration, Diri continued, the devastation’s sheer scope was too great for the state to tackle on its own.