Fish farmers in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, have lamented loss of N500m worth of investment to the July 8 flooding which swept away fish ponds in the area.
DAILY POST gathered that over 200 farmers whose ponds were located at Ikangba/Agoro in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State cried out that the flash flood has destroyed their means of livelihood, saying the disaster dealt a huge blow on their investment.
Addressing newsmen on Friday, the Chairman of the Ikanga Agoro Fish Farmers Association, Lazarus Okole disclosed that though the farmers had in the past experienced mild flooding, the magnitude of the loss suffered this year was devastating.
“Except for urgent succour from the Federal Government and Governor Dapo Abiodun to cushion the effects of the losses, many farmers might die from the debilitating shock of the huge losses,” Okole said.
While blaming the flood on the ongoing construction of Molipa/Imowo highway, the fish farmers saw the need to avert a re-occurrence of the tragedy, asking government to dredge the Yemule river so as to make it wide and deep enough to accommodate the volume of water channeled into it from Molipa/Imowo expressway, Ijebu-Ode.
“As things stand now, we are in pain, many of us are operating on bank loans, we decided to go into fish farming as a way of empowering ourselves. We ventured into the business of fish farming because we don’t want to be idle hands. We have been contributing our quota to the economic development of our country but all these are gone now.
“We hereby beg President Muhammadu Buhari and our dear governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun to come to our aid. This could be in the form of granting us soft loans to cushion the effect of these tragic losses so that our members can have something with which they can start all over again,” they pleaded.