Kate Owoko, the Bayelsa lawmaker who built a floating latrine for her people, is fighting back and defending her constituency project, a floating toil
Kate Owoko, the Bayelsa lawmaker who built a floating latrine for her people, is fighting back and defending her constituency project, a floating toilet after Nigerians ridiculed her effort and expressed anger over how low she went.
Kate Owoko said she built the toilet according to the pressing demand of the women of Okori Ama and Oweidei Ama in Amassoma LGA, southern Ijaw constituency.
“This is an insult to democracy”, tweeted Ogwu Karl Chukwuweike, in one of the many reactions, that summarised the outrage of Nigerians, when photographs of the floating latrine hit the social media.
That she even had the audacity to invite TV cameramen to shoot the ‘first wonder’ of Bayelsa exacerbated the anger of Nigerians, who interpreted her effort as a big insult to Nigerian voters. The roofed toilet, built with corrugated iron sheets was located on one of the creeks of Amassoma, with users made to pass their faeces into the water.
Women jubilant for the floating toilet
Kate in her reaction to the attacks said the toilet was built based on the pressing demand of the women of Okori-Ama and Oweidei-Ama of Amassoma, the town of late Bayelsa governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
“These were the pressing need from these women at the time. Due to the terrain of these said compounds, they were in grave need for such toilets to answer to the ‘call-of-nature’. Prior to today these women had to expose themselves to unsanitary conditions. Hence, requested particularly for such toilets from their representative”, a post on her FaceBook page said.
To buttress her story, the Bayelsa lawmaker posted also the photograph of excited women at the commissioning of the floating latrine. The reaction, from its tone, appeared to have been ghost-written for her. The writer said:
“This should be in no way mistaken for a constituency project which is her primary duty to her people. We are all aware that her constituency project is on education and it is ongoing”.
