BENIN CITY — DISGUSTED by the devastating effect of flood which has destroyed property estimated at over N10 billion in Edo State, the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula has asked Governor Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State to ask President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency in the state.
“Edo state is under severe threat by flood. Each time it rains in Benin City, the entire city is rendered impassable, so many houses are submerged and people die,” the ANPP lawmaker who represents the Oredo Federal Constituency asserted in an interview with Vanguard shortly after his tour of flood-ravaged communities in his constituency.
“I am calling on Governor Igbinedion ,” he went on. “to exercise his right under Section 305, Sub Section 3 (c) (d) and (e) in particular to declare a state of emergency in the state because flood has posed imminent danger and disaster to the people of the state.
“The portions of the constitution I am talking about empowers him (governor) to request the President to issue a proclamation of a state of emergency with the sanction of a resolution supported by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly where there is an imminent danger or the occurrence of disaster or natural calamity, affecting the community or a section of the community in the Federation”, he said.
According to him, “there is already a natural calamity in the state and the danger flood and erosion pose in the state require an extra-ordinary measure. The governor will be failing in his duty to the people of the state if he fails to exercise this right granted by the constitution. It will be neglecting his duty to the people as a governor for him not to exercise his powers to seek help from the Federal Government".
Arigbe-Osula told Vanguard that “this is a better way of using the state of emergency as intended by the constitution without interference with the constitutionally elected government structures on ground. The President can not shy away from it because it is a constitutional obligation that he swore to.
“We lost as many lives in this flood disaster in the state as it has been through ethnic and religious crises as far as I know except they want to tell me that they want to use it as a means of eliminating our people”, he added.
