Esanerovo Agbodo, the House of Representatives candidate of the National Rescue Movement, NRM in the 2023 general election, in association with other flood victims in Isoko North and Isoko South local government areas have sued the Federal government of Nigeria for negligence and for a one hundred billion Naira( 100b) compensation for Isoko people affected by the 2022 flooding.
The major bone of contention in the suit is to determine ” Whether the discontinuity of the process of construction of the Datsin Hausa Dam in Adamawa State by the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu due to poor Feasibility study and Engineering Design as he claimed during the Minister’s interaction with a Committee in the National Assembly recently, without immediately making arrangements since 2016, six years ago for a better Feasibility study and Engineering Design, having in mind the urgency of building the Dam to avert future occurrence of the destruction of this annual flooding in Nigeria was right and not equal to negligence.”
The defendants in the suit are the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources.
In the Originating Summons suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/202S/2022 titled “In the matter of the Construction of Datsin Hausa Dam and avoidance of perennial flooding in Isoko North and Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State” filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the following reliefs were sought: Firstly, a declaration that the Federal Government of Nigeria should identify and compensate these victims of the 2022 flooding in Isoko North and Isoko South Local Government Areas with the sum of One hundred Billion Naira( 100b) for loss of sources of livelihood and separation from families and living environment ” and secondly an Order to “compel the Federal government to consider this annual flooding as a ” matter of urgent national importance” in order to put it in its priority list in the 2023 budget among others.
