The Senate Leader of the 10th National Assembly, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has partnered the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) for the distribution of multimillion naira relief materials to thousands of rainstorm victims in Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State.
The beneficiaries were predominantly those whose buildings were ravaged by the stormy rain that hit the communities on February 11, 2026, with hundreds of residents rendered homeless in the process.
The materials captured victims from Irepodun/Irepodun, Ado, Efon and Ijero Local Government areas in Ekiti Central Senatorial District.
Distributing the materials to the beneficiaries at different locations across the councils, Senator Bamidele, who represents Ekiti Central Senatorial District, revealed that the intervention was geared towards palliating the sufferings of the rainstorm victims and offer them a lifeline at this challenging moment.
Senator Bamidele, represented by his Senior Legislative Assistant, Hon Gbenga Banji, sympathised with the victims of rainstorm disaster, describing the food items and other materials donated as capable of offering temporary reliefs, pending the time their ravaged houses would be rebuilt.
The federal lawmaker said he was sad upon getting wind of the devastating occurrence, saying the prompt facilitation of the palliative materials through NEMA would help in offering the required hope to the victims at this period of trial.
The federal lawmaker averred that he was aware of the trauma and harrowing experiences associated with disasters, saying this propelled him to quickly approached the NEMA to offer a helping hand and mitigate the excruciating pains attached to such incident on the victims.
“These food palliatives and other materials were facilitated through me as the representative of the good people of Ekiti Central Senatorial District to help the rainstorm victims at this period of grief.
“It was saddening and devastating seeing hundreds of buildings being blown off by windstorm at a time when people didn’t prepare for such. I knew what they are passing through and this gesture is to show empathy and solidarity that we are with them.
“I want to appeal to our people to always take precautionary measures to avert some of these occurrences through proper maintenance of building structures, planting of trees around residential areas and proper channelisation where necessary to prevent flooding that often happens on yearly basis”.
The NEMA’s Director General, Mrs Zubaida Umar, described disaster as something that is always sudden, which makes it imperative for residents to always take precautionary measures to prevent being caught in the web of rainstorm, flooding and other associated vices.
Umar commended Senator Bamidele for quickly approaching the agency to seek emergency help for his constituents, branding the gesture as accentuating good representation and display of empathy for the distraught residents.
The DG urged the beneficiaries to utilize the materials distributed to mitigate their sufferings while efforts are being intensified to rebuild their damaged structures.
Describing the gesture as commendable and signposted good representation on the part of the Senate Leader, the Ajero of Ijero Ekiti, Oba Joseph Adebayo Adewole and monarchs from other notable towns in the district, said the action would go a long way in stabilising the victims.
Oba Adewole added that Senator Bamidele, had taken a bold and apposite step by approaching NEMA to offer the requisite helps to the victims, saying this will abate the trauma some of the victims had suffered since the event occurred.
The first class monarch commended the Senator for not neglecting the victims to their fate, saying the shock and scar of the incident deeply permeated the entire local government and created panic among the residents.