Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

About 200 residents of Ayetoro, a riverine community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, have been displaced by a surge from Atlantic Ocean.

The surge, sources said, sacked the community and destroyed more than 25 houses.

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A resident of the town, Mr. Emmanuel Aralu, said the ocean began to overflow its bank on Saturday night and caught many of the residents unaware.

Aralu said about 25 houses were affected, while 200 people were rendered homeless with water submerging most of the houses in the community.

Besides the houses that were submerged, Daily Sun gathered that other property worth millions of naira were destroyed during the surge.

“The surge occurred in the middle of the night when many people had retired to bed.
We tried to pack some of our belongings out, but when we noticed that most of the houses had been submerged, we had to evacuate the people from their houses.”

“Property worth millions of naira were destroyed and washed away into the ocean. Houses were also washed away by the ocean and it has claimed more than 500 metres from its bank,” Aralu said.

The community leader, who called on the state government to come to the aid of the people, said the embankment project by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has failed to prevent ocean surges in the area.