Flood submerges Oko Poly as management declares holiday

Flood has submerged parts of the Atani Campus of the Federal
Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State.

The management of the institution as a result of the incident, asked
students of the campus to vacate with immediate effect.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the polytechnic, Mr. Obini
Onuchukwu in a statement made available to DAILY POST, urged the
students to vacate the campus for one week to enable the flood
dissipate to avoid any form of casualty.

He explained that the emergency holidays may be extended beyond a week
if the flood continues, to enable management do some works to salvage
the situation.

According to him, "the access roads to the campus, fields, offices and
classrooms have been all submerged with the students having challenges
in accessing their classrooms.

"The institutions perimeter fencing, electric transformer, electric
generating sets that supplies light to the area were also submerged
resulting in total blackout."

Onuchukwu, while commending the efforts of both the National Emergency
Maintenance Agency (NEMA) and the State Emergency Maintenance Agency
(SEMA) on their efforts in managing the situation across the country,
appealed to them to come to the aid of the polytechnic as a matter of
urgency.

He said, "As I speak with you, our entire Atani Campus has been
submerged by the flood. We encountered this experience almost on
yearly basis but the magnitude of this year's flood is overwhelming.

"Apart from the campus, hostels belonging to individuals where our
students stay were also submerged, making it impossible for any
reasonable academic activity to go on.

"We had earlier put some measures in place and cleared some flood
channels; but this year's flood came in a way we did not expect and
swept those things away. But we thank God that so far there is no
human casualty.

"We are using this opportunity to call for Federal and State
governments' interventions to enable us address the issue to be able
to reopen when the flood subsides."

Meanwhile some of the students who spoke with reporters said some of
their household appliances and personal belongings, including text
books have been damaged by the flood.

They called on all the necessary authorities to come to their aid
especially as their health may be in grave danger.