Oko Poly as management declares holiday, Flood submerges

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.