The people of Ilaje communities in Ondo State has called on the governments at federal and state level to urgently intervene to check sea incursion ravaging coastal communities in Ilaje Local  Government Area of Ondo State.

Sola Adebawo, an executive of the Ilaje Development Summit Group (IDSG) in a statement on Friday in Akure said that without urgent intervention by the two governments, many communities in the area would go into extinction in a couple of years.

The group decried alleged neglect of Ilaje communities in the coastal shoreline of Ondo State by successive administrations, leaving the communities at the mercy of the surging Atlantic Ocean over the years.

On November 14, NAN learnt that the resurging Atlantic Ocean rendered more than 2,000 residents of Ayetoro Community in the Ilaje Local Government Area homeless as it destroyed more than 100 houses and properties worth millions of Naira.

IDSG called for immediate provision of relief materials and medical support to alleviate the hardship of the people, and called on the Ondo State government specifically, to provide temporary shelters for those already displaced.

It explained that it had put an intervention committee in place as part of efforts to drive the process and facilitate state actors’ engagement in giving succour to victims of the surge.

“It is instructive to note that many communities in Ilaje Local Government Area, such as Messe, Gbagira, Jinrinwo, Odofado, Abereke and others, have suffered incessant debilitating effects of ocean surge for years.

“The most recent impact is felt at Aiyetoro, the hub of Ilaje creativity and industry, where several homes have been damaged, and several properties worth over a billion Naira destroyed,’’ it said.