NADMO Demands Money From Adaklu Flood Victims ...MP Left In Tears For Constituents

Officers of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the agency tasked to offer relief items and assistance to disaster victims, last Friday did the unthinkable when they demanded money from flood victims of Adaklu-Ayingba in the Volta Region. The Herald, has learnt that a team of NADMO officials and some members of the 48 Engineering Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces(GAF), who were deployed to the water submerged area, were openly demanding money from the suffering chiefs and poor people in the area, before making available any assistance to the them. The chiefs and people of the various Adaklu towns, who are mainly subsistence farmers, are reeling under the torrential downpours, which have made them homeless over the past two weeks. According to the information, the NADMO officers in particular, were seen soliciting money from the victims before assisting them. They claim the money was to purchase petrol for their official vehicles. They left without giving a grain of rice, maize or sugar. They did not also deliver mattresses or any form of assistance, saying they only came to observe the situation. They had slept in the area with the poor victims of the flood accommodating and feeding them. But when The Herald contacted, Dan Setsoafia, the leader of the NADMO delegation who went to the Adaklu area, he flatly denied the assertion saying, �it is totally false�. He said, this cannot be true in the scheme of operation of the organization. The man said to be from Akatsi further told The Herald that any time they visit a disaster zone, the first approach for members of the team was to sympathize with the victims and not to solicit money from them. He was quick to add that the water levels in the main district, including areas such as Kpetoe, have subsided over the past two days. However, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu Constituency, Kwame Agbodza, when contacted narrated how the flood situation has traumatized his Constituents over the past two years. He said, the entire area of Adaklu and Agortime, have been cut off from the District capital. The MP said, roads leading to the Volta regional capital, Ho, have also been totally cut off, leaving only one access route to the district capital, Adaklu Waya. Mr. Agbodza said, schools and health posts have been shutdown with pregnant women struggling to give birth in the flood. He noted that for the past two weeks, school children have not been able to attend school, because of the floods in the area, adding that even the Head Teacher of Adaklu Senior High School, has closedown the only secondary in the area, because students could not make it to the school since surrounding areas have been submerged in the flood waters. The Adaklu MP, who had spent many days in the Constituency helping people and calling state agencies to the area, maintained that the flood situation, has been a perennial issue, because of the low-lying nature of Adaklu lands, however, this year�s downpour has been too severe. He feared the area would soon be hit by famine, since most of the farms have been submerged in water. Mr. Agbodza, was also worried about how some residents are swimming across the flood water with their dead relatives, because they could not bury them, since cemeteries in the area have also been flooded, hence the dead cannot assess the cemetery. �The least place you dig, you hit water, my brother,� the MP told The Herald. He appealed to philanthropists and well-meaning Ghanaians to come to the aid of the flood victims to lessen their suffering.