Ayetoro Sea Incursion: ‘We may experience worse situation’

By Saheed Ibrahim
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As the world battles with Coronavirus pandemic, the people of Ayetoro in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo state have another battle in their hands as the Atlantic ocean, which flanks the community continues to erode it, with about 70 per cent of its landmass subdued by the sea water.

The feeling of the entire Ayetoro community can be described as despair, as the people have the belief that one day, the entire community may be under the sea.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Hope on the current situation in the “Happy City” and the feeling of people as the rainy season has commenced, the Secretary General of the community and a member of Ogeloyinbo-in-Council, Otunba Dele Kudehinbu revealed that  every month when there is high tide, it comes into the town. It is worse than that of last year, even when the rainy season has not commenced. The main street across the town, it has reached that main road”.

“The rain doesn’t need to be heavier than what we had last year, it would be worse because the shore line has been eaten away almost completely unlike that of last year. So, we are expecting the worse again this year”, he lamented.

Otunba Kudehinbu told The Hope that in order to salvage the remaining part of the community, many letters had been written to the Federal Government and many meetings had been held but nothing had been done to save the community from being washed away by the ravaging sea.

“People came from Abuja and Akure to look at it but nothing has been done, we’ve not heard anything again. We’ve been speaking to government, we’ve written letters to the state government, the Federal government, even to the National Assembly, complaining about sea incursion. So, nothing has been done up till now.

In a phone interview with The Hope, the Executive Administrator, Ilaje Developmental Summit Group, Pastor Sola Adebayo confirmed that the sea incursion is ravaging Ayetoro and other communities in Ilaje Local Government Area, admonishing the ‘Federal Government to protect the shore line’ because as they say, ‘he who controls the sea controls the war’.

The Deputy Chairman Strategy of Board of Trustees of IDSG however noted that in order to protect the community and the entire riverine area, government at all levels and the people of the area have roles to play.

He advised that the state government, which he said may not have adequate fund to manage the high level sea incursion, should continue to “put pressure on the federal government to address the situation.

It will be recalled The Hope reported that the last sea incursion in the commiunity destroyed over 200 buildings and property worth 200 billion naira

The Hope also reported that the town had been depleted from 26,000 to just 5,000 people and the larger percentage of the landmass had been subdued by the sea.

In the words of the Chairman, Ilaje Local Government Area, Hon Atikase during an exclusive interview with The Hope, “Ayetoro community was one of the biggest communities in Ilaje Local Government but today, we can count the number of roofs we have in Ayetoro because some of the houses have been washed away.”

“And beyond Ayetoro, there is another danger coming in Awoye. In fact, the sea is already having incursion into the fresh water. You can no longer differentiate the fresh water from the sea water in Awoye, likewise Abereke. Abereke and Awoye have the same features – as Awoye is in Ugbo, Abereke is in Mahin. Both of them are experiencing serious sea incursion

The major cause of this incessant sea incursion in the area, according to the residents, leaders and Hon Atikase is due to the on-going oil exploration and exploitation by oil firms in the area.

The sea incursion, according to the people of the community, occurs about four times in a year and when it does, it takes buildings, property and landmass with it, rendering the people homeless and hopeless.