Death of School Pupil: Delta APC Slams Oborevwori For Bad Governance As Party Commiserates With Deceased Family

The All Progressives Congress, APC, Delta State, has lambasted the Delta State government over the despicable manner the administration is handling the issue of perennial flooding in the State coupled with brazen negligence of decaying public infrastructure.

It would be recalled that Delta State has been predicted by NIMeT as one of the states in the country expected to be badly impacted upon by flood this year, yet the State government is not showing any readiness to put measure in place to address the disaster that usually accompanies the flood at this time of the year.

A few days torrential rain in the State recently saw some parts of Asaba, the State capital, submerged in flood water, but more catastrophic was the reported death of a Primary School pupil, Master Ojiyovwin Salvation, who lost his life when a six-classroom block collapsed on him in Eghereka Primary School, Ewu Town in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state, following a heavy down pour.

Fielding questions from newsmen on the poor state of preparation by the State government over the development, the State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress APC, Valentine Onojeghuo Esq, expressed commiseration with the family of the deceased pupil, describing the incident as a needless loss of life and a tragedy that could have been avoided.

He noted that the Delta State must take the blame for the brazen criminal negligence and failure of the immediate  past government of Dr. Okowa/Oborevwori to adequately address the perennial challenge of flood in the State, adding that this hss always been the result of the poor attitude of government paying lip service to the problem of infrastructural decay in state-owned primary and secondary schools across the State.

The unfortunate incident which happened in Ewu Town Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta Delta, was reported to have been caused by the collapse of a block of abandoned classroom while some school pupils were inside it. It was also confirmed that, apart from the deceased, other pupils in the dilapidated building sustained various degrees of injuries and were rushed to medical facilities for treatment.

“Most educational institutions, particularly primary and secondary schools in the State are littered with dilapidated and abandoned structures that are no longer suitable and conducive for learning,

“For years we have sounded the alarm about the deteriorating and decaying infrastructures in primary and secondary schools in Delta State. There are instances where children still sit on the floor to study with leaking or no roof at all.

“It is a shame that this kind of situation is allowed to happen in a State with the highest monthly allocation from the federal government and the state governor is saying that the building has been abandoned for over 10 years without a roof.

“This is a callous exhibition of bad governance at a new level and has exposed the insensitivity of this government to the plight of our school children who are being made to learn under horrendous conditions”, Onojeghuo said.

The APC scribe also condemned the State government over the recent flooding in parts of Asaba, the State capital, stressing that the Okowa/Oborevwori government must be taken to task to explain how having spent billions of naira constructing storm drainage systems the State capital, the perennial flood continues to ravage the city.

He said: “Before Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa left office, his government claimed to have constructed flood drainage systems at the inflated cost of over 35 billion naira of the State resources and during the construction, the drains collapsed due to the use of substandard construction materials

“It is disheartening to observe what is happening in Asaba after the administration of Dr Ifeanyi Okowa purportedly spent over 35 billion naira in building this so called storm drainage system and just a little rainfall everywhere is flooded meaning that the drains are completely useless having failed as one of the audio projects of the Okowa government.”

The APC chieftain chastised the Oborevwori’s administration as a continuous legacy of the disastrous and woeful Okowa government that wasted billions of naira on phantom projects that yielded no benefits, saying that the people of Delta State continue to be the losers as long as this type of governance us allowed to perpetrate itself in power.

“The present administration is synonymous with bad governance and a symbiote of the failed Okowa administration. It is clear from all indications that it would fare worse as there is no intention to address the sorry state of infrastructural decay in the State”, he concluded.