Address by His Excellency Governor Douye Diri on the flood situation in Bayelsa State on Tuesday, 18 October 2022.

1. Fellow Bayelsans, a couple of days ago I felicitated with you in a statewide broadcast on the occasion of the twin anniversaries of the Independence of Nigeria and the creation of Bayelsa State , I find it necessary to address you once again.

2. Over the last few days, floods have overwhelmed our communities and severely impacted the lives and livelihood of our people. This is a natural disaster that has affected many other states of the Federation to various degrees. I have been on a tour of several of our communities to see at first hand the extent of destruction. Our experience has shown that the flood water empties into our State.

3. From my personal assessment, the situation is dire. Nearly a million people in over 300 communities in the State, have been internally displaced. Unfortunately, some deaths have been reported. The narrative is the same across Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolokuma Opokuma Local Government Areas. Businesses have been shut, properties lost and farm lands destroyed. We have a humanitarian crisis.

4. Critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads, bridges and schools, including the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, have been severely affected.

5. As I make this address, Bayelsa State is completely severed from the rest of the country as portions of the strategic East-West Road, the sole access to and from the state, between Ughelli and Patani in Delta State as well as Okogbe and Ahoada in Rivers State have collapsed with a high volume of flood water occupying the stretch. Economic hardship has set in, as food, medical provisions and energy are now in short supply. The situation is desperate and getting worse.

6. I wish to on behalf of the people of Bayelsa, sincerely thank Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, for his kind directive to the different federal agencies to come to assist the state. I urge them to comply with this presidential directive expeditiously.

7. Without exaggeration, the sheer scale of the devastation is not such that the state can handle on its own. We urgently solicit the support of Multinationals, International Donor Agencies, the Red Cross, Diplomatic Missions and people of goodwill to come to the aid of our state.

8. I appeal to Mr. President to consider special grants to the state from the Stabilization Funds, Ecological Funds and Natural Resources Fund.

9. My dear people of Bayelsa State, I know these are indeed trying times and you have my assurance that I will stand with you through every step of the recovery process. The Bayelsa State Task Force on Flood Mitigation and Management in liaison with the State Emergency Management Agency has established IDP Camps , and providing relief materials for victims of the flood. I have also directed that the distribution of these relief materials should be done in a non-partisan manner. We are all first and foremost Bayelsans.
The Task Force can be reached through the following numbers:
08050581188
08166428624

10. I hereby direct all Public Servants except those on essential duties to be given time off from work for the next one week .

11. Let me make a special appeal to vendors, particularly of fuel, food, water and pharmaceuticals not to exploit the situation. We must be our brothers' keeper.

12. Government has also observed that at such moments of distress, some miscreants take advantage of the vulnerable population to commit crime. Let me make it clear that we will continue to have zero tolerance for crime and criminality.

13. I know that we are all impacted by this situation, either directly or indirectly. I am also not unaware of the support and love you have shown to each other at this time of adversity. I am deeply inspired by your resilience and solidarity. This is the authentic Ijaw spirit. I salute you all.

14. We serve a miraculous God who will not leave us nor forsake us. Be assured and strengthened by the words from our state memory verse in Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”.

This too shall pass.

God bless Bayelsa State

God bless Ijaw Nation

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Pleaseeeee!!! Keep your SIM that receive your alert. Read this.PLEASE BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR PHONES. SEE BELOW AND SHARE...

*CONFESSION OF A SUSPECT-*
"I do what we call wire-wire, wire-wire is also called SIM transaction, so sim transaction is local wire".
"Any alert SIM I come across, with any bank, I can work on it and do transaction on it, I can withdraw, recharge and get loan on it".

Interrogator - "Explain to me now, how you do it?"

Suspect - "If I'm given an alert SIM, I'll press *425*100#, this will show the bank the owner of the SIM is using"
"If the Bank is Access Bank, then I'll dial *901*00#, it will show the account balance of the person, if I want to reset the PIN, it will ask for the account number of the person and Date of birth".

Interrogator - "How will you know the account number and Date of birth of the person?"

Suspect - "The account number, some do save it on their contacts and some don't, so if I see the account number on the contact, I will use the person's BVN to bring out all their details".

Interrogator - "How will you get someone's details through their BVN?"

Suspect - "I'll dial *565*0#, so when all the details are revealed, I'll now register with the Bank of the person involved and I can carry out my transfers".

Interrogator - "So you will change the PIN of the person right?"

Suspect - "Yes I'll change the person's PIN, I'll input account number and Date of birth, then it will prompt me to create PIN, then that's the PIN I'll be using to do transfer".

Interrogator - "What if there's no money in the account?"

Suspect - "If it's salary account, when there's no money in the account, I can use it to collect loan".

Interrogator - "What's the maximum amount of loan you can borrow?"

Suspect - "There are some that are 15,000, some 20,000 and others 5,000 Naira loans"

Interrogator - "Can you operate with any other SIM apart from SIM used in receiving Bank alerts?"

Suspect - "No, it's only SIM used in receiving alerts" "No matter how hard the code may be I'll break it, if it's used to receive alerts"... "I've done some demonstration here too".

Interrogator - "So if I give you my SIM used in receiving bank alerts now, you can do anything with it?"

Suspect - "Yes, I can do any transaction with it".

Interrogator - "Where will you transfer the money to?"

Suspect - "I do open no trace account" "I'll transfer it to that account" "We call it AZA"

Interrogator - "How do you open such accounts and how can you transfer into such accounts?"

Suspect - "I can use anyone's BVN to create another account that will be "no trace account" "I can transfer into another person account and it's the person that will be sought after, not me".

*TAKE NOTE AND REPORT MISSING OR STOLEN PHONE IMMEDIATELY TO THE POLICE AND YOUR BANK*

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