Residents of the Ayetoro coastal community in the Ilaje area of Ondo State have appealed to the state and the Federal Government to save the community from imminent extinction as the incessant incursion of the Atlantic Ocean has almost washed the community away.

It was gathered that the ocean surge which often occurred has destroyed properties of the residents of the community and consequently many had been rendered homeless as a result of the ugly development.

A statement issued on Sunday, on behalf of the residents of the community, by an environmentalist, Mr. Kolade Omoyeni, called for immediate intervention of the government at all levels and other stakeholders, to save the community from being eroded by the ocean.

Omoyeni, who expressed fear that the erstwhile socialist community might be washed away as a result of incessant ocean inrush if government at all levels and other relevant authorities delayed in rescuing the community, pointed it out that the sea had destroyed the architectural and economic buoyancy of the community, due to oil exploration activities of oil companies in the adjoining communities.

He said, “The oil companies carry out exploration in the communities surrounding Aiyetoro without acceding to international standard practice.

“They carry out their exploration activities without recourse to global environmental protection laws. This is the same inhuman attitude of the multinational companies in the whole of the Niger Delta.

“Black soots are threatening the existence of most oil host towns from Bayelsa to Ondo State while the Petroleum Industrial Act cares very little (even in theory) about the continuous reckless damaging of the riverine areas and lands. The economy of the host communities in Niger Delta region are lamed by the crude activities of the oil companies.”

He also called on the intervention agencies – the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission and Niger Delta Development Commission to save Aiyetoro community from being sunk by incessant ocean surge by ensuring that all abandoned intervention projects awarded in the coastal community were completed.

The environmental expert warned that if the community was allowed to be washed away by the ocean, several other riverine communities in the Ilaje Local Government Area would suffer the same fate.