Sea incursion: 21,000 flee Ayetoro

By Saheed Ibrahim
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Over 21,000 residents of Ayetoro community in Ilaje Local Government area of Ondo state have now become refugees, scattered in various other communities in the state, as a result of the sea incursion that have ravaged the town.

The Secretary General of the community, Otunba Dele Kudehinbu disclosed this when The Hope visited the community.

He revealed that the community, which was said to be about 15 to 20 kilometres to the sea, had lost a major part of its landmass to the sea.

His words: “The places we are calling sea today were once bare ground, where we were playing football in those days. It was about 20 kilometres before the sea. The sea incursion did not start today, it started long time ago,” he said.

According to him, Ayetoro, which in 2006 had 26,000 residents and under normal circumstances should have increased, has unfortunately been depleted to 5,000 due to incessant sea incursions into the community, which forced many residents to relocate.

 Kudehinbu also revealed that on every street, there used to be at least 32 buildings, but the greater percentage of the buildings had now been washed away by the Atlantic Ocean.

The second in command to the ruler of the community, Arch Bishop Eremibo Eretan described this year sea incursion into the community as the worst so far.

Eretan told The Hope that many of the community’s members had left the town to seek refuge in other communities as their belongings and houses had been washed away by the sea, adding that the social and economic activities of the people had also been paralysed.

This is just as chairman, Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State; Mr Otito Atikase described the incessant sea incursion into Ayetoro community in the area as a threat to all other communities in the local government area.

Some of the affected residents, Mr. Goodluck Ejagbomo also recounted his  ordeals. He told The Hope that he had moved his family and the leftover of his property out of the community because his house had been destroyed and his business had been crippled.

Another businessman, Mr Akindele Igoli said his house had been washed away by the sea and he and his family were squatting with another member of the community.

Mrs Ibironke Saehi, who trades in consumable goods, said she had lost goods worth over N200,000, adding that she currently stays with her friends at another community called Eranna because the sea had destroyed her residence.

The community’s primary school, according to one of the youth and principal of the only private secondary school in the community, Mr Aralu Emmanuel, had been relocated four times while the secondary school had been moved to three different locations in the last 15 years.

Mr Aralu, who put the number of the affected houses in the last sea incursion at 500, said that many of the students were yet to resume back to school and many of those that did were still having the emotional trauma caused by the sad incident because their families have been displaced.

“Some of them are back in school while some are not because of the many issues caused by the incidents. Their parents are trying to settle down in their new places. Our major occupation is fishing and the sea incursion poses a lot of threats and challenges to them,” he said.

Corroborating this, the Headmaster, Ayetoro Community Primary School, Mr Ogunluwa A. O. disclosed that the primary school had been totally washed away and out of over 400 pupils the school had, only 178 resumed school last Monday, November 5, after the three weeks emergency holiday declared by the state government.

The primary school is currently making use of the dilapidated Technical College in the community, a building which the major part of its roof had gone off and the environment is filled with water, dirt and bushes.

The Headmaster told The Hope that the only option left was the moribund Technical College building at the entrance of the community.

“We merged two classes together. Primary one and two are in the same class, KG one and two are in the same class. If we refuse to do it, the children will stay at home”, he said.

As at when The Hope visited the community, the community power generating house, which is financed by the community members, was filled with water; hence, throwing the community into darkness at night.

The community health centre was not left behind in the damage. The facilities in wards and all other units had been destroyed by water and with the sad condition of the centre; a woman and a child of about two-three years old were on admission.

The doctor in charge of the health centre was not available but only two nurses were seen attending to the patients.