Tag: Flood

Flood: 22 newborns delivered across IDP camps in Delta

The Delta State Government has disclosed that a total of 21 Iives were lost as a result of the flooding that hit parts of the state in the past two months.

Chief Patrick Ukah, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Flood Management Committee, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Asaba while briefing newsmen on the flood situation in the state.

He said the loss of lives and property recorded by the state would have been more catastrophic if not for the proactive steps taken by the state government.

“Today, we are here to give you an update on the flood situation in Delta, most especially now that the water is receding.

“It is quite unfortunate if you consider the experiences of our people who were affected by the flood.

“However, now that the waters are drying up, we are now faced with the challenge of returning our displaced people to their homes,” Ukah said.

The SSG said the state government through its committee on flood management had been able to manage the flood victims in the state.

He disclosed that the 2022 flood was far more devastating than what was experienced in 2012.

According to him, the state government has a record of 21,000 persons in eight Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps set up by the state.

“Another 17, 000 persons in four IDPs camps was set up by Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC).

“We thank God we didn’t have many deaths in our camps, 10 persons died in the flood at Patani while they were trying to travel to Bayelsa.

“Another six died in Bomadi, four in Isoko and one person died in Ugbolu while chasing Antelope in flood waters.

“Also, let me inform our people that we recorded the delivery of 22 newborns across the various IDPs camps in the state.”

On funding for the camps, Ukah disclosed that the state government ran the camps very strategically and did not receive any money from elsewhere.

He, however, added that the state government received relief materials from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for distribution to the impacted persons at the various IDPs camps in the state.

On the amount so far spent by the state government, Ukah said the committee had made several requests, adding that the amount would be sumed up at the end of the camping and the report made available to the media.

November 10, 2022
Tinubu, Omo-Agege distribute N50m cash, N150m worth of relief materials to flood victims in Delta

Distribution of the N50 million cash donated by APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and N150 million worth of relief materials facilitated by the Deputy Senate President and Delta APC Governorship Candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege for flood victims in the state have commenced.

The cash and gift items were given to leaders of the affected areas at the local level for onward distribution to flood victims in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the three senatorial districts of the state.

Specifically, the items were collected at the Agbarha-Otor home of the Coordinator of Delta APC Campaign Organisation in Delta Central, Chief Ominimini Obiuwevwi.

The relief materials include bags of rice, beans, salt, blankets, seasoning cube, mosquito nets, clothes, roofing sheets, nails among others.

Speaking during the distribution, Chief Obiuvwevwi said the development was in line with the promise made by Asiwaju Tinubu and Senator Omo-Agege to bring succour to displaced flood victims a week ago.

He disclosed that the three camps visited by the Party last week were given N5 million each, other 15 camps will get N2.3 million each while the relief materials will be shared equally across the three senatorial districts.

The IDP camps that got N5 million each are those in Patani (Delta South), Utagba Ogbe Technical College (Delta North) and Okwagbe Secondary School (Delta Central).

Centres in Delta South that received N2.3million each include those located in Bomadi Town; Tuono in Burutu and Isaba in Warri South West; Inorin, Warri South; Late Senator Okpozo’s compound in Ozoro, Isoko North as well as Hon. Joel Onovwakpo Thomas Campaign HQ in Emede, Isoko South LGA.

Also, centres in Delta North that received N2.3 million each include NDDC IDP Camp, Kwale, Ndokwa West; DESOPADEC IDP Camp, Ndokwa East LGA; Ewulu Mixed Secondary School IDP Camp, Ewulu, Aniocha South LGA; Basic Secondary School, Illah, Oshimili North and Onne Primary School Cable Point, Asaba, Oshimili South.

Similarly, Town Hall, Evwreni in Ughelli North LGA; Uwheru Grammar School in Ughelli North; Emadadja Community IDP, Udu LGA; Eghereka Secondary School, Ewu-Urhobo, Ughelli South and Aladja Community IDP, Udu LGA all on Delta Central all received N2.3million cash.

November 9, 2022
Nigerians can’t breathe – By Owei Lakemfa

BAYELSA State was for weeks submerged by floods which damaged or washed away bridges and roads, homes and farms, power transformers, and hospitals, and displaced 99 percent of its over 2.5 million people. Some deaths were recorded with the living clinging to life while the buried could not safely remain in their abode as the floods covered or washed away graves. The only means of reaching the state was either by air or water.

State Governor Douye Diri, a fortnight ago, cried out that despite international concerns and desperate pleas, neither the Federal Government nor its agencies had sent relief materials. He was specific that although the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk claimed to have sent relief materials, these had not been received.

Indeed, if the Ministry had sent relief materials to such an area covering 10,773 square kilometres, there should be some evidence including when it was supplied, where and who received it. But no such evidence could be provided, leading to a recall of how the same Ministry in 2020 scammed Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Government had imposed a total lockdown on Nigerians with no movement. Subsequently, all schools were shut-down and children, like the rest of the citizenry were confined to their homes.

Shockingly, the Disaster Ministry claimed it spent N523.3 million to feed pupils in three locations during the lockdown. How was it possible to feed children who were on lockdown at home? Did the Ministry procure the addresses of the pupils and went knocking their doors to feed them? There was not a shred of such evidence. No pupils could be produced who were fed by government during the lockdown. When doubts were raised, rather than keep her head down, Minister Umar-Farouq in an audacious move, addressed a world press conference insisting that her fairy tales must be believed by a rational world.

She claimed that in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, her Ministry during the lockdown, fed 88,227 pupils in 29,609 households. In Lagos, she claimed 112,767 pupils were fed in 37,589 households while in Ogun State, 181,173 pupils were fed in 60,391 households. In all, she claimed that her Ministry in seven weeks, fed 248,371 pupils in the three areas when their homes were under lockdown. In striving to explain the magic how pupils on lockdown at home were allegedly fed by her Ministry, she replied that they were “Take Home Rations.”

If such money had been paid out as COVID-19 relief package, each of the estimated 200 million Nigerians would have gotten N2.5 million each. It was a scandal over which a decent human being should have resigned. But she stayed in office; retained by a government whose leadership when it was in opposition in 2012 popularised the slogan: ‘If Nigerians don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’

The school feeding programme itself is a mess. While the Presidency in 2020 claimed it was spending N679 million daily, the Minister denied this. Some weeks later, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, revealed that it had traced to private accounts N2.67 billion meant to be funds for the school feeding programme. The Federal Government was to later accept that the flood relief materials had indeed not gotten to the state.

Its excuse was that trucks conveying them were stuck in Kogi State and other locations due to the flooded condition of the roads. This did not appear sensible as it was known for weeks that Bayelsa had been cut off from the rest of the world and that the two ways of reaching it were by air or sea. So why would the Federal Government claim to have put trucks on the road and then announce that it had supplied relief materials to the state?

When finally the relief materials were airlifted on October 26 and 27, 2022, they were shockingly meagre. The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA South- South Zonal Co-ordinator, Mr. Godwin Tepikor, announced that the Federal Government supplied 1,400 bags of 10kg rice, 1,400 bags of 10 kg beans, 1,400 bags of 10kg maize and 75 20kg bags of salt while the non-food items supplied were 8,000 pieces of nylon mats, 1,000 pieces of mosquito notes and 600 cartons of bath soap.

The State Government through its Emergency Management Agency Chairman, Hon. Walama Igrubia, disputed the Federal Government’s claims on the number of relief materials brought to the state. He was, however, emphatic that what the people need is primarily food: “The intervention so far is not encouraging. The non-food items brought can come later but the state needs food at the moment. It is when a man eats that he can survive.”

The Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark, given the snail speed at which the Ministry seems to be working in an emergency in which lives were being lost, took a swipe at the Minister: “We have a Humanitarian Minister that is not humane, who was only active to carry out school feeding of school children who were confined to their homes during the COVID-19 lockdown.” Honourable Minister Umar-Farouk who appears to have a lot of time in her hands, responded in almost a child-like manner: “Merely looking at me, you know that I am humane.”

At a press conference in the Presidential Villa on Thursday, November 3, 2022, Madam Farouk was obviously seething with anger over the Bayelsa State issue. In seeming to reverse herself on her false claims that only four local governments in the state were affected by floods, she said: “Almost all of Bayelsa, but it will also interest you to know that Bayelsa is not even among the ten most hit. I think Jigawa is number one and we have taken intervention to Bayelsa and it’s still on-going.”

Incredible! It is a disaster for a Minister of Disaster to rank states affected by a disaster as if it were a sports competition in which medals were being awarded. Her conclusion is primarily based on the number of deaths. So by her logic, since the floods led to 91 deaths with 148 injured in Jigawa, compared to 58 dead and 81 injured in Bayelsa, Jigawa wins the gold medal!

Our country is suffocating; with inflation inching towards 20 per-cent, hunger spreading, insecurity, especially banditry, common place, the country being buried by debris of foreign debt, corruption rampant, hospitals in decrepit state and education virtually abandoned, Nigerians can hardly breathe. Given the fact that the handover date is still six months away, we need to beg the Buhari administration to loosen a bit, its suffocating grip on the country so we can at least be alive to witness its glorious exit.

November 8, 2022
Prayers for Bayelsa, boos for FG – By Zogbobia Selomo

By Zogbobia Selomo

To what level has this country to sink to warrant a stirring from the leadership of this much vaunted most populous black nation on earth into action? It is not about the economy going burst, that is a given. It is not about infrastructure decay or electricity in acute short supply, that is a fait accompli. Or is it about Nigeria being the poverty capital of the world, even the inertia in high places has forced this ignominious reality on us as the home truth.

Just how low does the country have to sink? As I watch Bayelsa State under water in the past couple of days, that is the question that haunts every moment of my life, just to see people suffer so much, battle the waters which they have been used to all their life, and then be overwhelmed and found themselves completely abandoned, all alone, like the ancient mariner, lost at sea. Bayelsa is a nightmare. And the complete abandonment of the state by the Nigerian government makes the matter even worse.

By November 2, 2022, the state celebrated the 11th anniversary inside the waters, to give glory to God for His act of mercy in keeping the state alive. The holy books say, in all things give thanks to God. That’s what the state, led by the governor, Douye Diri, did this past Tuesday. But the flood pictures, especially viewed aerially, are not good. They are too overwhelming to behold.

Wednesday morning, the governor was on Arise TV. Pressed by the anchors, Dr Reuben Abati and Rufai Oseni, about the response of the federal government, the governor kept saying this is no time for blame games. We have not heard from the President, the Vice President and even the minister of the Humanitarian Affairs ministry.

Flash the pictures again. A state has nearly been taken over by soaring waters. The state has not heard from the top functionaries of the federal government. No visit. No words. No empathy. It is the silence of the grave yard. Who knows it may be their wish for the entire state to be washed away, for the leadership of the nation to have peace in their soul.

It is worse as the President of the country, Mohammadu Buhari, has evacuated himself to the United Kingdom on health grounds. He has to be fit to continue to govern, but those in Bayelsa can go with the floods. As we say in this part of the world, God forbid! Really?

Could anything have been done to stop the floods? Perhaps, preemptive measures could have been taken. But not here where procrastination is a standard policy of the government. Procrastination while expedient actions are executively misplaced.

So it was that while several states of the federation were under water with Lokoja in Kogi state bringing their ordeal to the fore, the road connecting Abuja totally submerged, as Bayelsa was loading at the same time, President Buhari went to attend the First World Bio Summit in South Korea. Six days he was there, perhaps, watching on TV and trying to confirm the number of deaths in his own country. Okay, he has returned but has now travelled for the real reason, to take care of his health, as the President must be alive to serve his nation, or is it really to remain alive to be served by this nation?

I don’t think people hate Buhari but they hate the fact that he belongs to the APC, a ruling party that has done so much to destroy every facet of life in Nigeria. The party that has taken the nation from the nadir of a pretending developing country to the mire of a loading failed state. They hate the fact that with all the human capital available in this nation, President Buhari has just managed to put together a collection of human species that hardly understand modern socio-political, economic practices or even nurse a modicum of human feelings in them. Really? Are these guys alien, that some states in the federation have endured devastating flood and the federal government is just about waking up from an irritating slumber?

What was expected? Nigerians expected governance. Nigerians expected empathy. Nigerians expected some actions from the government and a little humanness. They got none. Quite different from what they see in other lands.

Governance is not rocket science. Precepts abound for those with a little strand of brain. Hurricane Ian made a landfall on the state of Florida on September 28, 2022, with serious devastation. October 5, 2022, the President of the United States, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were in the state, took a helicopter ride to get full view of the catastrophe, and also met with the governor , Ron DeSantis, even though the latter is of the Republican Party, and he, a Democrat. This wasn’t about party but life. Biden then approved the Florida Disaster Declaration which made federal funding available to affected counties and individuals. The Biden administration got behind the state and her people. Where is the Nigerian government in Bayelsa?

Before we scratch for the answer, let’s take a little trip back in time. When what now seems to be a much lesser evil came in 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan, the man they called inept and clueless, had the presence of mind to tour the affected states of Kogi, Anambra, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers, to estimate the devastation by himself.

Spokesperson for the President at the time, Dr Abati wrote on October 9, 2012, “President Goodluck Jonathan has declared the flooding a “national disaster” and established a National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation. On October 9, his administration announced it was providing U.S. $110million in financial assistance.”

The same man they called clueless appointed bsuinessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and erudite lawyer, Mr Olisa Agbakoba, as co-chairmen of the Committee, and Dr Mike Adenuga of Globacom as the Chief fund raiser.

Jonathan, to them, was clueless but he took action and galvanised the big boys into action to help save lives. History has played a trick on this government peopled by those who haunted Jonathan out of power. The floods have returned in more ferocious anger. They have not only been found wanting, daft and inept but have sorrowfully just displayed a total lack of capacity to govern. Their protracted silence is not only uncanny but evil. Their delayed response is beyond condemnation.

This is not about Jonathan however, but about the shouting failure of this government, whose officials made so much noise about changing things in Nigeria in 2015 that Nigerians saw El Dorada without experiencing it, they saw castles built in the air and dreamt to live in such abracadabra that only APC could create.

Now Bayelsa and other states need help and the APC government led by Buhari is pouring salt on the pains of the people it has refused to help. One failed minster, among several others, a human disaster who didn’t have have any business occupying that position in a nation that boasts of some of the best brains in the world, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, gave a morbid ranking within the week that Bayelsa is not among the ten most affected states, but Jigawa. More morbidly, she blamed the dead and the submerged states that those who suffer are the states who refused to heed the early warnings from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET.

Can’t this nation just wake up to the evil in the land and the recklessness of this administration which has more appetite for lucre than accommodation for human feelings? This minister fed pupils who were not at school during COVID-19 with large sums of money, doled out subvention to people not listed in any register to bring them out of poverty, but with floods wiping out life in the nation, the minster is aggravating pains and anger with her crash ineptitude and provocative ignorance.

And the same party is campaigning. They have a magician in a Bola TInubu, former governor of Lagos State, who, after contributing immensely to create a disaster, has now dusted up himself as the new messiah, who has promised to continue with the very disastrous and destructive legacy of this administration.

There is disaster in the nation. The PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has gone to walk on water in Bayelsa, Peter Obi of the Labour Party has done same, obviously not in the manner of the story of Jesus Christ in the Bible, but as humans, to share in the pains of these people. Meanwhile the head of government is abroad, the officials are unfeeling, and the party is campaigning to change our world, but not the world of those who are dead or have lost everything in the flood.

Bayelsa needs our prayers. This government deserves outright condemnation of the very extreme type. But Nigerians need to wake up to ensure that never gain will APC and its evil happen to the nation again.

Selomo writes from Lagos State.

November 5, 2022
Floods: Ijaw slams Humanitarian Affairs Minister’s comment, demands apology

The Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, on Friday, slammed the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs Sadiya Farouq that “Bayelsa State is not among 10 worst hit states affected by flood disaster, describing the remark as reckless and provocative.

Recall that the Minister had said Bayelsa State, which is reeling under floods, was not among the 10 most hit states.

She also said Jigawa State, which recorded the highest number of deaths and number one of the states was most affected by the disaster.

But in a swift reaction by the coordinator of IMG, Mr Joseph Evah, the ijaw demanded an apology from the Federal Government without delay over the Minister’s comment.

The statement reads: “If we were In a fair and just country, Bayelsa State should be number one among the 10 worst hit states because 99 percent of the state was submerged and the state capital was the only state capital that was cut-off from the rest of Nigeria. We wish to remind the minister that gone are the days when the Niger-Delta oil money will be used to find solution to the country’s problems, while the source of the funds are neglected with excuses.

“The reason the minister, who made this provocative and embarrassing statement, in a federation has not been sacked within 72 hours is unacceptable.

” We expected what happened in advanced countries to happen here when a minister misbehaves in public.”

He stated that since the creation of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the people of Niger-Delta has not felt the impact of the ministry “because of the hostile attitude of the leadership of the ministry.”

In addition, Eva said: “The National Assembly members from the Niger Delta should, as a matter of urgency, request for the sack of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs on the floor of Parliament for insulting our region and its people.”

Source: Vanguard

November 4, 2022
Isoko Reps candidate, others sue FG, demand N100bn compensation over flooding

The House of Representatives candidate of the National Rescue Movement, NRM, Esanerovo Agbodo 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 N100billion compensation for Isoko people affected by the 2022 flooding.

The major bone of contention in the suit is to determine: ” Wether 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.
And THE PLAINTIFFS hereby seek the following reliefs:

1.A Declaration that the Federal government should identify and
compensate these victims of the 2022 flooding in Isoko North and Isoko South.

2.A Declaration that the Federal government should consider this annual
flooding as a matter of urgent national importance in order to put it in its priority
list in the 2023 budget

3. An Order for the Federal government to complete the dredging of major rivers in Nigeria and the building of the necessary Dam to avert future occurrences of flooding within one year,

4. A Declaration for the National Assembly to probe the poor Engineering
concerned and Feasibility study of the DAM mentioned by the Minister of Water
Resources – Engr. Suleiman Adamu in the Nation Newspaper publication of
October 19th, 2022 and establish the reasons for not building and the completion of the Dam since 2016 when the perennial flooding problem was identified by him.

5. An Order that the spending of Ecological fund by the Federal government from 2001 till date be investigated, as also mentioned by Socio- Economic Rights
and Accountability Project (SERAP).

Citing the audit of the Ecological Fund Office carried out by the. Nigeria
Extractive industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). SERAP said 277 billion was disbursed from December 2011 to November 2016 and some of disbursements were not utilised for the purpose for which it was established according to the audit
report.

November 4, 2022
Flood impact ranking: Bayelsa Govt tackles Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs

The Bayelsa government on Friday faulted the ranking of flood impacted states as presented by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Recall that the Minister, Sadiya Farouq, had told State House Correspondents that Bayelsa is not among the 10 most impacted states by the 2022 flood.

The Minister had listed the death toll, number of buildings, farmlands partially and totally destroyed amongst others as part of criteria used in the assessment.

However, the Bayelsa government, in a statement signed by its Information Commissioner, Mr Ayiba Duba, described the Minister’s claim as disheartening and contrary to existing facts.

Duba regretted the slow response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the flood in spite of the President’s directive to relevant agencies of the federal government to come to the aid of the state.

He alleged that the Faroud-led ministry and its agencies have abandoned their responsibility and are not interested in managing the disaster.

“Indeed, the Minister is already turning into part of the disaster she was appointed to manage. She had earlier claimed that only four Local Government Areas of the state were impacted by the unprecedented flood.

“She was obviously relying on bogus data in contradiction to the clear reality that every local government in the state is impacted by the flood in varying degrees.

“The way the minister has treated our state is so unfortunate that our people are beginning to doubt that we are part of Nigeria,” Duba said.

He wondered which criteria were used to arrive at the ranking since no representative of the Federal Government has visited Bayelsa to assess the situation.

The Bayelsa government further claimed that the Federal Government has not shown sufficient empathy since the natural disaster hit the state one month ago.

“And we are asking, is Bayelsa State still part of Nigeria? Are we only important when it is time to exploit the resources in our land?

“If the minister is sincere, let her tell Nigerians the relief materials brought to the state and who received them,” Duba said.

According to Duba, the Minister and Indeed the Federal Government are not fair to the people of Bayelsa who have been traumatized by losing loved ones, homes and livelihoods.

The commissioner explained that the minister’s data with which she came to the conclusion that Bayelsa was not even one of the 10 most impacted states, contradicts basic science, common sense, concern and kindness.

“How can a state up North, Jigawa, be worst impacted when indeed Bayelsa State has the unfortunate responsibility of receiving the flood water that ran through more than 15 states?

“The data used by the Federal ministry to arrive at the conclusion is suspect and erroneous,” he said, indicating by the realities on ground, over 300 communities were impacted by the flood and almost a million people were displaced from their homes, many of them losing their livelihoods.

“And no other state in the Federation is so impacted. If the Minister is desirous of doing a good job, she should come to Bayelsa State to ascertain the truth, even as the flood has started to recede,” Duba said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, on Thursday visited some impacted communities and displaced persons’ camps and called for joint efforts by Bayelsa and the Federal governments to assist victims.

Sylva, a former governor of Bayelsa, said he was unimpressed with the preparedness of Bayelsa government, adding that portions of the East-West road, cut off by the floods, would be fixed expeditiously.

November 4, 2022
UN seeks support for floods victims in Nigeria

The United Nations (UN) on Thursday called on the international community to support Nigeria as it faces unprecedented floods, which have impacted more than three million people.

UN Spokesperson Mr Stephane Dujarric told correspondents at the UN headquarters in New York that the Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr Matthias Schmale had made an appeal for assistance.

“More than 100,000 hectares of farms have been flooded, damaging staple food crops such as cassava, rice, and plantain. This will aggravate the already alarming food and nutrition crisis across Nigeria.

“As floodwaters slowly recede, the priority is to help people to get back to what is left of their homes and regain lost assets and livelihoods.

“We are working together with the Government, doing the best we can to provide aid, but additional funding is needed.

Similarly, Dujarric said Niger was also facing severe flooding, where heavy rains are continuing to claim lives and wreak havoc on homes and infrastructure.

“Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that more than 330,000 men, women and children are now impacted by floods in all eight regions of the country.

“Since the rain started in July, 195 people have died and more than 200 people have been injured. More than 36,000 houses have collapsed,’’ he said.

According to him, the southern regions of Zinder and Maradi have been hit particularly hard, with entire neighbourhoods submerged.

He said the agriculture sector throughout the country was also impacted.

“We, along with our humanitarian colleagues, are providing support of the Government, delivering essential items.

“The 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan for Niger is looking for 552 million dollars; it is only 42 per cent funded,’’ he said.

Mr Mustapha Ahmed, Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the flood killed no fewer than 300 persons, injured 500 persons and displaced 100,000 others in 2022.

NEMA also said houses and farmlands were submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.

November 4, 2022
Flood aftermath: FG assures of prompt repair of East-West Road

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, says the Federal Government has taken steps to repair the section of the East-West Road washed away by floods.

Sylva gave the assurance on Thursday during an inspection of some failed portions of the highway.

He described the destruction of the road by floods as unbelievable, noting that a permanent and lasting solution must be found.

“The devastation is unbelievable. I have come with a message from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

“We have given a directive to the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Niger Delta Ministry to ensure that the repairs of this road are completed expeditiously.

“This flooding happens every year; as we stand here we know that the water is receding but the water will come back in a matter of few months next year.

“We must look for some kind of solution to this problem which has bedevilled us every year.

“We have to work together as a people and leave our political differences; we are not here to campaign, this is not about any campaign.

“This is about Nigeria and the wellbeing of Nigerians and that is why we have come here and the FEC has directly taken steps to ensure this devastation that we see here is ameliorated as quickly as possible, Sylva said.

The minister also visited some Internally Displaced Persons camps and directed the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to donate relief materials to the flood victims.

Sylva was accompanied on the tour by the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote.

November 3, 2022
Delta flood: Dafinone shares relief materials to IDP Camps at Otu-Jeremi, Okwagbe

…says I share in your grief

The Delta Central Senatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, Chief Ede Dafinone, on Wednesday continued the distribution of relief materials to other Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps as his team visited Otu-Jeremi and Okwagbe Camps in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

Speaking at the Otu-Jeremi and Okwagbe Camp, Chief Dafinone while sympathizing with the flood-displaced persons, encouraged them to be steadfast in this trying moment.

He disclosed that the level of devastation caused by the flood cannot be quantified, stressing that he shares in their pains and encouraged them to remain positive even in the face of the present challenge.

The renowned accountant urged the government to find a permanent solution to the flood crisis and help the victim to mitigate their losses so that people can return to farms.

He said; “We heard that the flood also affected you, so we are here to bring immediate support, but these will only feed the stomach for a while and it will not solve the problem because thousands of people are homeless.

“Those people who have lost their jobs and means of livelihood as a result of the ravaging flood still need rehabilitation. When the flooding is over, the people will no longer have the means to survive, therefore, more publicity is needed to draw the attention of the government to intervene and rescue them from hunger.

“The government have mapped out plans of action to enable the flood victim to find their feet after when all this is over, so we are drawing government attention to the displaced people. The government needs to come up with a solution that will solve the flooding problem.

“I also want to call on cooperate organizations and the international community to step in and bring sustainable succor to the flood victims by providing building materials, seedlings, fishing nets and other items to enable the restart of life.

Earlier, the Secretary of Otu-Jeremi Community Comr. Solomon Ughen, on behalf of the community, thanked Dafinone for supporting the displaced people and thanked Chief Dafinone and his supporters, praying that God will stand by him in his ambition.

Also speaking at the IDP Camps in Okwagbe, the duo Okwagbe IDP Camps Chairmen Mr. Sunday Solomon and Nicholas Okadge expressed delight in the food items donated by the Delta Central APC Senatorial Candidate, praying that God will grant him his heart desires.

November 3, 2022