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Tag: NEMA

  • NEMA receives 193 Nigerians from Libya

    NEMA receives 193 Nigerians from Libya

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 193 stranded Nigerians from Libya.

    Mr Segun Afolayan, Acting Zonal Coordinator, NEMA, South West Zone, confirmed the development to the newsmen on Friday in Lagos.

    Afolayan said the Nigerians arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 8.32pm on Thursday aboard a chartered Nouvel Air aircraft with registration number UZ 189.

    He said the returnees were assisted back home by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) under its Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.

    Afolayan the returnees comprised 81 female adults, one female child and 14 female infants.

    He said they also included 87 male adults, five male children and five male infants.

    Afolayan urged Nigerians to stop stigmatising returnees who went outside the country in search of greener pastures.

    “It is a right for everyone to live free and comfortable lives but the process or the means of seeking the fulfillment of the rights are the ones in contention.

    “Many of these innocent victims are not aware of the dangers on the means and the routes of the journey. They fall easily to the deceitful and deceptive promises of better life outside the country.

    “Nigerians need to accept the challenges of the menace of irregular migration as evil and inhuman and all hands must be on deck to save our innocent youths from embarking on such perilous journeys henceforth,” he said.

    Afolayan advised the returnees to remain positive and undaunted by their unfortunate experiences in the volatile North African country, adding that they should be focused on how to improve their lives in Nigeria.

    According to him, the Federal Government, IOM and the European Union have been providing opportunities for the returnees through various skills acquisition programmes.

    Afolayan, therefore, appealed to the private sector to assist the government in the reintegration of the returnees to make them more productive.

  • Again, NEMA receives 174 Nigerians from Libya

    Again, NEMA receives 174 Nigerians from Libya

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 174 stranded Nigerians from Libya.

    The returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 1.10a.m. on Friday.

    They were brought back in an Al Buraq Airlines Boeing 737-8000 aircraft with registration number 5A-DMG by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) under the Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.

    The returnees were received by officials of NEMA and other government agencies including the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

    The Acting Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, South West Zonal Office, Mr Segun Afolayan, said after profiling the returnees that they included 61 female adults, four female children and eight female infants.

    Afolayan said there were also 91 male adults, six male children and four male infants, along with an unaccompanied male child, among the returnees.

    He said the returnees included 10 families, three minor medical cases and three pregnant women.

    Afolayan advised Nigerians to be wary of traffickers who lure them into perilous journeys with false messages of getting rich quick outside the country.

    One of the returnees, 30-year-old Mr Chukwudi Onyemechie, from Anambra State, told newsmen that he was a successful auto tyres dealer at Ladipo Market, Lagos, before he was fooled by the promise of a better life in Europe.

    Onyemechie said a man convinced him to travel to France via the Libya route and he eventually sold off his wares and proceeded to Benin Republic where he began the unfortunate journey.

    He said :”I was told that the journey would be by road but I never knew that it was a deadly and dangerous route.

    “I entered Libyan town where I was taken to a camp controlled by Nigerians where I spent three months in detention.

    “My trafficker organised my detention in order that I would be forced to pay him money. He asked me to pay some amount to a connection man who denied that I didn’t pay. and my trafficker claimed he settled the man and I had to double the amount.

    “I left Nigeria in June 2017. I experienced unstable and dangerous life over there. After struggling to cross but unsuccessful, I was helped to get to IOM office in Libya, who helped me back to Nigeria today.”

    Onyemechie advised Nigerian youths who were thinking of going to Europe through Libya to jettison such plan, stressing that it was better for them to make the journey in a regular manner and with adequate information.

    Another returnee, Mrs Kikelomo Ajasa, a mother of one from Ibadan, Oyo State, said she left Nigeria in 2016 with the hope of getting a better job abroad, with the encouragement of her husband.

    Ajasa, who holds a National Diploma in Hotel and Tourism, said she left Nigeria because of the various challenges that her family was facing.

    She said :”I got to Libya with God as my saviour but the racial discrimination by the Libyans is too bad.

    “If you’re unfortunate to enter bus and sit beside a Libyan, throughout the journey, the Libyan will not want your body to touch his own and he will cover his noise throughout.

    “Though, some of them are very nice and good, majority, especially the youths, don’t wish the blacks well.”

    Ajasa said she got a housemaid job where she was being paid 6,000 Dinars, equivalent to about N60, 000.

    “If I want to send N20,000 to Nigeria, I must part with N40,000 or N50,000 before my family will get the N20,000.There is no banking system there.

    “Nigerians who had settled down are the launderers. They have their Nigerian bank accounts.

    “Once, we pay them there in dinars, we don’t know how they transmit the money, but our families will receive what we agreed on their bank accounts here in Nigeria.

    “I am not happy for the wasted years. If I had stayed back, I could have been more settled and successful,” Ajasa lamented.

     

  • Flooding: NEMA distributes relief materials to affected communities in Rivers

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has commenced the distribution of relief materials to flood affected communities in Rivers.

    The ongoing intervention distribution in Onelga Local Government Area of the state was witnessed by all the Community Development Chairmen (CDC) in the area.

    Mr Yakubu Suleiman, ead of Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of NEMA in Bayelsa and Rivers, started the distribution on Thursday, in Onelga.

    Suleiman said that this phase of intervention was to ensure that the affected communities received means of livelihood after surviving from the shock of the flood.

    “The agency knows that the victims need food and non-food items to survive after the flood incident,” he said.

    Suleiman said that the agency had done intervention in all the camps of the affected LGAs and also in more than 50 communities in the area.

    He also said that about 71 communities in Ahoada West had benefited from the distribution of 100 bags of rice, garri, salt among others to each community in the area.

    Suleiman said that there was a shift of distribution of relief materials from the former system of handing over materials to SEMA or LGA chairmen.

    “We appeal to all state governments to embrace the direct distribution concept of NEMA. Direct distribution means, taking the materials door to door steps of the affected communities.

    “And not handing it over to State Emergency Agencies or Local Government chairmen and then go back to Abuja without reaching the communities.

    “This is exactly why we are taking it to the door steps of the victims. The communities involved signs an acknowledgement paper for us when they take their materials.

    “This shows that they received the materials and we also have our copy in case of doubt,” Suleiman said.

    He said that the post food team had taken records of all farms, buildings, health centers, worship centers and fish farms that were affected by the flood.

    “This team has been working with us and they will ensure that the victims get what they will use to survive,” he said.

    Suleiman stated that the relief for Bayelsa has yet to arrive; the materials on ground at the moment were meant for Rivers.

    He said that the distribution was successful due to the cooperation of the communities involved.

     

  • NEMA DG replies reps, denies mismanaging N33bn

    Mustapha Maihaja, Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has denied misappropriating N33 billion as alleged by the House of Representatives Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness.

    Maihaja denied the allegation while briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, where he shed more light on activities and interventions of the agency.
    He described the public response as an obligation to adequately inform Nigerians on what truly happened in NEMA.

    He said the House of Representatives’ committee got the whole figures mixed up, leading it to make the accusation.

    The DG denied receiving N5.8 billion for the Emergency Intervention of Food Security in the North East (EFINE) as contained in the committee’s report.
    He explained that NEMA only got about N800 million while other funds were paid directly to contractors.

    “The Emergency Intervention of Food security in the North East (EFINE) came into beings due to a number of factors and the project demand was a clear case of an emergency.

    “In the course of the programme, grains were moved from various warehouses in Ibadan, Funtua, Kano, Gombe and Kaduna to the North East to cater for the dire food needs of victims of insurgency.

    “The movement of the grains was well-coordinated with adequate security and there was no reported case of a single bag of grain that got missing in the movement.

    “As part of the process of monitoring the project, a visit was undertaken by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning on August 7 and 8, 2017 to Bauchi, Yola and Maiduguri.

    “During those visits, no issues were raised by the states and throughout the entire process we did not receive any feedback, positive or negative on the process.

    “Taken into cognizance the open door policy we had taken and the long tenure of the project, there were many avenues for these issues to be raised to NEMA or the acting president,’’ Maihaja said.
    Maihaja also explained that the People’s Republic of China donated 6,779 metric tonnes of rice to Nigeria as part of its support to the North East humanitarian efforts.

    He said the quantity of the rice was 135,550 units of 50kg bags.
    He said that in total, 271 containers arrived Apapa Port from China in five shipments between June and October 2017.

    He explained that the agency expended N518 million on shipping and storage charges for the 271 containers donated by China.

    He said that the original shipping documents and Custom Exemption Certificates were handed over to NEMA by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning in December 2017 and January 2018.
    He said that thereafter, NEMA commenced the immediate clearing and subsequent haulage of the donated rice to Maiduguri, Damaturu, Yola, Jalingo, Gombe and Bauchi.

    “To further justify that the items were received on behalf of the Federal Government, they were delivered into NEMA warehouses in Gombe, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and warehouses provided by the state governments in Bauchi, Taraba and Yobe.
    “ The Chinese rice was used for monthly feeding of the IDPs specifically in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states with balance in stock at Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba,” he added

    He explained that in the case of the flood intervention in the 12 states which was mentioned in the legislative report, N1.6 billion was released after the flood had occurred at different times.
    He explained that NEMA immediately conducted assessments and established the needs before moving in with relief materials.
    “The agency delivered the items to the 12 states between September and November 2017 and subsequently the remaining four states.
    “Evidence of receipt of the items by the respective state governments is available.

    He said that following the international outcry of cases of slavery in Libya towards the end of 2017, the Federal Government commenced the massive evacuation of Nigerians from Libya.

  • Alleged N5.8bn scam: Resign, submit yourself to trial – HURIWA urges Osinbajo

    The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called for the comprehensive reorganization of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

    This follows the indictment of Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbanjo and the Director General of NEMA in a N5.8 billion scam by the House of Representatives.

    HURIWA also frowned at the ongoing squabble between the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Osinbanjo over the indictment.

    HURIWA wondered why extensively damaging criminal allegations are being turned into a political wrestling match instead of the relevant agencies of government at the centre and the National Assembly to activate mechanisms to reform the corrupt infected system.

    The association noted that, “Nigeria does not have the luxury of time to engage in political gymnastics by the political actors given that there are several national emergency situations that have happened all over the nation with thousands of Nigerians becoming internally displaced with no effective remedial redress mechanisms both at the centre and the federating units.”

    In a statement signed and made available to journalists by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA asked the Vice President and the Director General of NEMA to resign immediately or be suspended for three months or sent on compulsory leave pending the holistic determination of the subsisting allegations.

    The association said, “They should subject themselves to transparent and open investigative activities by a combined team of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission (ICPC); Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC); and the Code of Conduct Tribunal so as to ensure hitch-free probe of the extensively damaging allegations.”

    HURIWA said, “EFCC alone can not guarantee a transparent given the affinity that exists between the acting Chairman of EFCC and the Vice President.”

    HURIWA further applauded the All Progressives Congress, APC, dominated Federal House of Representatives for not capitulating to partisan pressure and undermine the investigation.

    HURIWA, however, affirmed that the enabling Act setting up the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, needed to be reworked fundamentally to insulate the office from the institutionalized political interferences of the presidency given that the Vice President is listed as the Chairman of the governing body of the agency.

    Besides, HURIWA has tasked the National Assembly to take up the national assignment of reforming the enabling Act that set up NEMA so as to provide for the appointment of a technocrat with no political affiliations to head the National Emergency Management Agency because of the strategic national functions that such a sensitive institution is created to perform.

    The Rights group lamented that over the years, NEMA has been used as a politically manipulated national cake by the party in power to reward the patrons of the political party just as the Rights group stated that the current management is the worst because of the fact that the Director-General was basically rewarded for his contributions to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “We commend the visionary speaker of the Federal House of Representatives and the committee which began and completed the legislative probe of the monumental scandals within NEMA and has uncovered a spectacle of fraud and deliberate disobedience of the due process governing public procurement. Those indicted must be dealt with appropriately.

    “This is a clear case of criminality and must not be reduced into the traditional brickbats between PDP and APC. The right thing must be done so as to properly refocus NEMA to deliver services qualitatively and equitably to all sections of Nigeria instead of the current position whereby it operates like a pro-North East agency.

    HURIWA recalled that the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness offered insight into why it indicted Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the alleged diversion of N5.8 billion meant for emergency intervention in the northeast.

  • Osinbajo reacts to House report indicting him of acting illegally on NEMA funds

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has reacted to a report released by a House of Representatives committee indicting him for allegedly approving funds illegally.

    Recall that the House committee in its report accused the vice president of acting illegally in approving N5.9 billion for emergency operations of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) whose head was being investigated by the lawmakers.

    Osinbajo’s response is contained in a statement signed and released by his spokesperson, Laolu Akande on Friday.

    “These presidential approvals were well within the clear constitutional authority of the Acting President, who needed to take emergency steps to forestall acute food shortages in the affected States and there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about them,” Akande wrote.

    Read the vice president’s full reaction to the report below.

    Our attention has been drawn to a report of the House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness issued on Thursday, November 8, 2018, particularly in respect of funds released for “emergency intervention of food security to the North-East” in June 2017, when the Vice President was Acting President.

    In its report, the Committee alleged that a sum of N5,865,671,939.26 was approved and released in June 2017 vide a Memo raised from the Office of the Acting President, directing the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to so act. The House Committee also concluded that the payment made was in contravention of approval of the National Assembly. This conclusion is both false and misleading.

    To start with, it is important to understand the context of the transaction. This was at a time when internally displaced persons and their host communities faced very severe food shortages throughout the North East, as a result of successive poor harvests and abandoned farmlands, minimal cross-border cash crop trade and lost economic opportunities.

    On 15th April 2017, the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP), a major aid organisation and food supplier to the region, had issued a warning that it would be reducing its vital support to about 1.8 million IDPs by as much as 85%, due to corresponding reduction in funding by the donor countries. Around the same time, the United Nations Commission for Refugees in Geneva also warned of the growing risk of mass deaths from starvation among people living in the conflict areas.

    The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) moved urgently to prevent the looming disaster by establishing a strategic food intervention plan for the affected States. A Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Delivery to the North East was convened and the Committee met on the 13th of May, 2017 to kick off the process, with the then Acting President as Chairman. Other members of the Committee included:

    (i) Minister of Finance;

    (ii) Minister of Budget and National Planning;

    (iii) Minister of State for Budget and National Planning;

    (iv) Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development;

    (v) Governor of Central Bank;

    (vi) Deputy Chief of Staff to the President; and

    (vii) Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.

    Resulting from the deliberations of this and subsequent meetings, the approval referred to in the House Committee’s Report was, in fact, based on a request raised by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as facilitator of the National Food Security Programme, vide a letter dated May 25, 2017.

    As explained in the said letter, there was an immediate need to distribute grains, including rice, maize, soya beans and sorghum, to Internally Displaced Persons through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The only way to obtain the quantity of grains required was to resort to the National Food Security Progamme (NFSP) earlier established by the Federal Government as a means of shoring up its strategic grain reserves.

    It was in consequence of the Federal Government decision to urgently purchase the stored grains for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons that the CBN made the proposal for approval of 30,905.08 Metric Tonnes at N5,229,685,333.26. Of that amount, the then Acting President eventually approved N5,036,644,933.26, after excluding bagging costs. This was pursuant to the recommendation that bagging, transportation and other logistics were best handled by NEMA.

    NEMA also originated a request to the Acting President, dated May 25, 2017, requesting the sum of N829,026,456.00 for general logistics, branding & packaging, tracking, security, personnel, media & publicity and contingency costs of taking the grains from their respective locations in Kano, Kaduna, Funtua, Ibadan and Gombe to Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Jigawa States.

    These presidential approvals were well within the clear constitutional authority of the Acting President, who needed to take emergency steps to forestall acute food shortages in the affected States and there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about them. The approvals were duly communicated by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Central Bank, Director General of NEMA and the Minister of Finance for implementation.

    On account of the emergency nature of the procurement, the House Committee’s assumption that the ordinary rules of procurement would apply was wrong. Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act makes provision for emergency procurement, in which case the procuring entity is allowed to engage in direct contracting for goods and file a report thereafter with the Bureau of Public Procurement.

    It is also wrong to assume that taxes and interests accruable to government from these transactions in food items were deliberately ignored or waived by neglect. Of course, we expect that any loans advanced to any of the companies would be recovered with the agreed interests, and that any profits made by such companies would be liable to tax in the usual manner.

    The suggestion that the grains were never delivered to the target States is also blatant falsehood. In actual fact, in order to ensure effective distribution of the grains, an Emergency Food Intervention Project Team was established, consisting of the Director General of NEMA and representatives of the National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Department of State Security, Nigeria Police and the Presidency. The Committee also worked with respective State Emergency Management Agencies, as well as humanitarian agencies such as World Food Programme, International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Deliveries were publicly made directly to the intended beneficiaries. In fact, the then Acting President personally inspected the electronic truck-tracking unit established in Maiduguri for the purpose of monitoring the transportation, and flagged off the food distribution on the 8th of June, 2017. Besides, there was the integration of a robust monitoring and evaluation system into the operation in order to facilitate a transparent and accountable process.

    Therefore, all insinuations on this matter regarding purported indictments and perceived violations of due process or the constitution are baseless and totally false. Such interpretations are flawed and should be utterly ignored.

    Laolu Akande

    Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President

    Office of the Vice President

    9th November, 2018

  • Breaking: Another batch of 149 stranded Nigerians return from Libya

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 149 stranded Nigerians from Libya.
    The returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 1.20 am on Friday.
    They were brought back in a Buraq Airlines Boeing 737-8000 aircraft with registration number 5A-DMG by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) under its Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.
    Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesperson for NEMA, South West Zone, said the majority of the returnees came back from Tripoli, the capital city of the volatile North African country.
    Farinloye said they comprised of 81 adult males, 56 adult females, two male children, eight male infants, one female child and two female infants.
    One of the returnees, Ms Aminat Sunday, told newsmen that she worked as a maid during her stay in Libya, adding that she was lured to the country due to family burdens and persuasion from her trafficker.
    The 29-years-old lady who hails from Ifo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun state, said she regretted embarking on the journey as she had a very difficult experience in Libya.
    According to her, she paid her trafficker with her full year wages after arriving in Libya.
    “I was working as a housemaid cleaning tiles but the work made me to come back home because it is very stressful, tiring and have serious health problems on my body.
    “To be sincere, Nigeria is far better than Libya, I have learned my lessons in wrong way but thank God I am still alive,” Sunday said.
    She, therefore, advised other youths to learn from her experience and shun the urge of irregular migration in search of greener pastures.
     

  • Nigeria loses over N2.6 trillion to perennial flood

    Nigeria loses over N2.6 trillion to perennial flood

    Perennial flood disasters have resulted in colossal loss of property and livelihood in Nigeria, with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) estimating the loss at over N2.6 trillion.
    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Senator Kabiru Gaya while presenting a motion he sponsored alongside with Senator Stella Oduah and 102 other Senators, made this known at Senate sitting on Thursday.
    The recent flooding across the country occasioned by torrential rains that unleashed havoc in different parts of the country over the past few months, claimed hundreds of lives and damaged thousands of homes.
    So far, the floods ravaged 34 states including Kebbi, Cross River, Enugu, Kwara, Lagos, Imo, Kogi, Ondo, Jigawa, Taraba, Rivers, Katsina, Gombe, Imo, Bauchi and Akwa lbom states.
    Others are Ogun, Anambra, Niger, Katsina, Kwara, Adamawa, Edo, Kano, Benue, Delta, Yobe, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Ebonyi,Enugu, Nasarawa, Bayelsa and Osun states.
    Senator Gaya observed that in the last three decades, the impacts of flooding have increasingly assumed from significant to threatening proportions, resulting in loss of lives and properties.
    “Though detailed statistics are not available regarding the losses sustained by the urban dwellers and flood victims, it is obvious from the available records that irreparable loss have been sustained by the citizen of Nigeria due to what has become perennial natural disaster in our cities.
    “Apart from houses (built with mud brick, traditional building materials of the area and those not built with modern flood resistant structure) that collapse by flooding, schools, buildings and bridges sometimes collapse as well. Market places and farmlands are submerged for weeks and sometimes are washed away.
    “The recurring annual floods in Nigeria especially arising from the release of flood waters from various dams in Nigeria have caused avoidable loss of lives in many communities across the country.
    “These perennial flood disaster have also resulted in colossal loss of property and livelihood, with NEMA estimating the loss at over 2.6 trillion Naira to the menace,” Gaya stated.
    He said the Senate is aware that the attendant loss of lives and livelihood from the avoidable floods has led to dislocations and loss of future direction for the impacted families, and that these flood disasters have worsened the crises of internally displaced persons.
    He further stated that the Senate is concerned that these perennial floods have over the years caused widespread and irreparable damage to the various ecosystems along the impacted areas, with some flora and fauna lost forever, and that the floods have also introduced several strange vegetation that not only choke native flora, but are usually difficult to control.
    Senate was also concerned that these floods have over the years resulted in permanent devastation of vast stretches of arable lands nationwide.
    After due consideration of Gaya’s motion, Senate urged NEMA to send relief materials to affected victims of flood across states of the federation, and urged federal government to convene a stakeholders meeting to ex-ray the recurring situation with the view to proffering a lasting solution to flood disasters.
    The Senate also urged the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to rehabilitate existing dams to be able to take in flood waters.
     

  • Flood: New IDP camps rebound as NEMA deploys relief materials to Delta

    Flood: New IDP camps rebound as NEMA deploys relief materials to Delta

    The ravaging impact of the flood in Delta have caused the victims who could not access any of the 12 Government established Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps to create 10 new Camps for themselves.
    However, the Flood Management Committee created recently by the State Government and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said they were on top of the situation.
    The agency said that it would cater for the needs of the people in both the government and the private camps.
    The Director, Relief and Rehabilitation, NEMA, Mr Kayode Fagbemi, in a statement on Monday in Asaba, commended the state government after inspecting some of the IDPs Camps and areas affected by the flood.
    He noted that government had been proactive in the setting up of the camps to handle the impact of the flood across the state.
    He expressed his sympathy for the people for their suffering and inconveniences particularly for those in the private camps and gave the assurance that the challenge was being addressed.
    The director expressed hope that the effect of the flood would not be as devastating as that of 2012.
    In an interview, Mr Walson Brandon, NEMA Incident Coordinator for 2018 Flood Emergency Operations Centre, Anambra and Delta States, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that NEMA was handling the situation.
    According to him, NEMA had on Friday delivered truck loads of relief materials for distribution to the IDP Camps in Delta.
    He said that the material supplied included rice, tin tomatoes, blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets, sanitary pads, pots, children’s wears, women and men’s wears, water purifiers, others.
    Brandon said that when the agency reviewed the situation in the camps there might be additional supply of relief materials to complement and to ensure that the victims’ needs were met.
    He said that the agency was working with other partners to ensure that the people had good life while at the camps.
    He said that after the flooding the next line of action would be on how to resettle the victims back in their homes.
    “Now, what we are doing is purely response and the most important need of the people now is how to eat.
    “This is why, as you can see today, we are handing over some relief materials and medications.
    “As we speak, we are waiting for a truck load of drugs billed for the victims of flood in various IDP camps in Delta.
    “In managing the camps, there are gaps that have been identified in various camps such as shortage of health personnel and water supply; but as the days go by most of these issues would be addressed.
    “After this stage, our focus will be on how to put the people back to normal life to enable them to go back to their homes,” Brandon said.
     

  • Boko Haram kills NEMA staff

    Workers of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have been thrown into mourning, following the killing of a colleague by Boko Haram insurgents.

    Excavator Operator John Iliya was killed by Boko Haram jihadists on August 8 at Damasak in Borno, according to a statement by NEMA on Thursday in Abuja.

    Mr Iliya is the latest victim of the Islamic insurgency that flared since 2009, killing more than 20,000 people and displacing up to 2.5 million residents of Nigeria’s North-east.

    Spokesman of NEMA, Sani Datti, said that the Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, had dispatched a team to Maiduguri to facilitate the return of Iliya’s remains to the family.

    Mr Datti said that Iliya, who was working with troops on the front lines died in the line of duty.

    The insurgents have been fighting at many fronts for almost a decade, in a bid to enforce a strict Islamic code in Northern Nigeria.

    The insurgents, whose activities have also been felt in Chad, Niger and Cameroon, have been packing punches regularly, hitting civilian targets and other soft spots in Nigeria’s North-east.