Obi said flying into the state in a chopper gave him a better aerial view of the situation and that the state needed urgent help.
A former Governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has said he is surprised that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had yet to respond three weeks after a massive flooding hit Bayelsa State.
Obi said flying into the state in a chopper gave him a better aerial view of the situation and that the state needed urgent help.
The LP candidate spoke on Saturday in Yenagoa, the state capital, when he paid a courtesy visit to Governor Douye Diri at the Government House before they both visited internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Oxbow Lake Pavilion camp in Yenagoa.
He lamented the hardship experienced by people of the state as a result of the floods and wondered why the federal government had not sent a high-powered delegation to the state with a view to providing assistance for the people.
While calling on the federal government to declare an emergency over the flooding in parts of Nigeria with Bayelsa as a case in point, he remarked that as a state that was strategic to the economy of Nigeria, it deserved more from the centre.
Obi said, “There is no way anyone will be happy with the situation in Bayelsa. My appeal is for the federal government to send a strong team to come see what is happening here.
“I was a governor in 2012 but I did not see what I have seen today. The federal government needs to declare an emergency in Bayelsa considering the strategic importance of the state to Nigeria.
"I appeal also to the international community and donor agencies too to help. Bayelsa needs urgent support. What I have seen here is unimaginable. The federal government needs to intervene immediately."
Responding, Governor Douye Diri expressed appreciation to Obi for his show of love to people of the state, saying he feels comforted by his visit, which was the first by any high profile individual.
Diri lamented the impact of the flood, which he said has claimed lives, property and destroying the economy of the state.
The Bayelsa governor acknowledged the concern showed by President Muhammadu Buhari by directing federal rescue and disaster management agencies to assist the state. He however noted that the directive was yet to be adhered to.