Natives of Ilara-mokin, in ifedore local government area of Ondo state, under the auspices of Egbe Omo Ilara-mokin have distributed relief funds to victims of rainstorm that recently wreaked havoc in the town, rending over two hundreds residents homeless.
The rainstorm destroyed property worth millions of naira in the community as the roofs of many houses and shops were blown off by the rainstorm.
Though, the state deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa had led some top government officials to commiserate with the victims and promised to alleviate their loses, nothing is yet to come forth after a week, hence the decision of the Egbe Omo Ilara-mokin to do something for those affected by the rainstorm.
Presenting the cheques to the victims at the palace of Alara of Ilara-mokin on Wednesday, the president of the association, Dr (Mrs) Oluwayemisi Olorunsola said almost 200 houses were affected and the association would not leave everyone behind without being assisted.
Mrs Olorunsola urged, the victims to accept the gesture with minds of gratitude and continue to pray for sons and daughters of Ilara-mokin,home and abroad who had donated to ensure the success of the distribution of money.
Also addressing newsmen at the event, Olorunsola said, “The rainstorm really caused a lot of damage, a lot of people became homeless and hopeless.
“As the president of the umbrella body of Mokin Sons and daughters worldwide, I made calls to our people and I said this is the time to rise up and be our brothers’ keepers, we cannot afford to see our people in the town, sleeping under the rain or being homeless. And I want to use this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to Mokin sons and daughters worldwide and some of our friends who responded to this call from everywhere as everyone wanted to participate and they sent in their money and we were able to put some money together to give as a first respite to the people that are affected.
“ I want us to know that it’s not just about the money, it’s about the love, the unity, the support, the rallying together of Mokin sons and daughters, so that we can give hope to those that are hopeless and it’s about the joy that this has put back into the society. This is what community is all about, this is what togetherness is all about, this is what the Nation, state and community should be all about, for us to come together to be our brother’s keeper, for us to love one another and be united and I am proud to say that Ilara-Mokin has demonstrated that not to this community alone, but to the world at large.
“I want to thank the Deputy Governor who represented the state government. He came here and saw all that happened and promised to come back to render assistance to our community.I will also like to thank our senator elect in Ondo Central and Member House of Assembly elect in Ifedore Local Government, they also gave us some money to add to what we have collected to help the community.
“ We hope that the Deputy Governor will come back as promised to render assistance to the people.”
We have evaluated the level of damage, there are some that are very terrible, some are sub major, some are minor, we have done some analysis and we have also categorized the amount of money we are going to give them, what they will get depends on the level of damage the rainstorm caused but the most important things is that everybody will go home happy.
“We have identified the causes and to forestall such in the future, we are going to start the campaign of planting trees and after today’s program, the second phase which is starting by this weekend is for us to rechannel our water ways for water to flow freely, so that there won’t be flood”.
In a remark, the Alara of Ilara Mokin, Oba Abiodun Adefeyinti, said, “On the 10th of March, we all know what happened, more than 180 houses were affected including churches and schools. If you go round now, you will see things for yourself.
”We believe that most of them that have been affected should have some succor from the community and the government as a whole.
”We want to make sure that those areas that are flooded, from time to time, Egbe Omo Ilara-Mokin which is an umbrella organization and is basically for the development of the community and they started this as far as 1979.
“Both NEMA and SEMA, none of them have reached out to the community, only the Deputy Governor who represents the state government came around and from what he said, something would be done, we know it is very urgent but we believe government will do something about it”.
