Flood forces Bayelsa traditional ruler to sleep in car

The traditional ruler of Tungbo town in the Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Amos Poubinafa, now sleeps in his car as floods have sacked him from his palace.

“I have been sleeping in my Toyota Sienna for two weeks since the flood ravaged the palace.

“It reached the knee level and made the palace uninhabitable,’’ Mr Poubinafa, a retired naval officer, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Tungbo.

“The car is the only safe place for me; the entire building is flooded and there is no safer place for me to sleep.

“My family has been relocated to Yenagoa. As the Captain on board (traditional ruler) this vessel, I cannot abandon my subjects to seek alternative abode outside the town.

“By my training as a naval officer, I am not expected to abandon the crew I am leading in my vessel. I am expected to be the last man standing,’’ he said.

Mr Poubinafa also told NAN that he equally suffered in the floods of 2012 as he could not leave his subjects and relocate and that the situation is worse in 2022.

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He appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency, the Bayelsa Emergency Management Agency, and other well-meaning individuals to assist flood victims in Tungbo town.

He also called on the Federal Government to construct dams and dredge Rivers Niger and Benue to end perennial flooding in parts of the country.

Tungbo community is host to the Federal Science and Technical College, a co-educational college founded in 2002, which is on Sagbama-Tungbo Road.

Mr Poubinafa retired from the Nigerian Navy as a lieutenant commander in 2002 before he became the paramount ruler of his community.

(NAN)