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From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
When the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) issued a flood alert for 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for this year, not many people took the warning seriously.
The alert by the agency was due to a high risk of flooding which it said would affect over 739 communities and 162 local government areas across those 28 states between August 7 and August 21.
The agency, in the alert, urged stakeholders to activate preparedness and response mechanisms against the disaster.
The states mentioned include Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, FCT, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, and Yobe.
The Erosion, Flood and Coastal Zone Management Department of the National Flood Early Warning Centre of the Federal Ministry of Environment also predicted flood disaster in 24 states of the federation and FCT
A statement by Usman Abdullahi Bokani the Director of the centre dated 31st July, 2025, predicted that the disaster may occur between that 31st July and 4th of this month in the 24 states including Ebonyi and urged relevant stakeholders to take note.
He listed Afikpo, Echara, Ezillo and Abakaliki as the areas that will witness heavily flood between the 31st of last month and 4th of this month.
The predictions by NHSA and the federal ministry of environment, later manifested in Ebonyi State with some communities devastated by the natural disaster, leaving death, sorrow, hunger and hardship in the affected communities.
Some of the affected communities include; Inyimegu, Ikwo Local Government Area, Kpoghirikpo, an ancient kingdom in Enohia Itim autonomous community, Afikpo in Afikpo Local Government Area, Ndieze Inyimegu, Izzi Local Government Area and Azuoto Okpoitumo, Abakaliki Local Government Area.
In the Inyimegu disaster. which occurred before the predictions, four lives, including a pregnant woman and a child, were lost while hundreds of people in the area were displaced. The disaster also destroyed their crops and valuable property, including houses worth millions of naira.
About 4,000 victims of the disaster were given some food items including rice by Chairman of Ikwo Local Government Area, Sunday Nwankwo last week.
There was also loss of lives in the Azuoto Okpoitumo incident which occurred this month after a downpour that lasted for many days. Crops and property worth millions of naira were also destroyed.
In Ndieze Inyimegu, Izzi Local Government Area, the disaster claimed one life and the deceased was identified as Mrs Theresa Nwaji.
The state recorded the highest disaster this year in Kpoghirikpo, Enohia Itim, Afikpo Local Government Area. In the community, over eight lives were lost when the incident occurred last week.
The tiny, hilly, agrarian area surrounded by a river, was ravaged by the flood after many days of heavy rains. The river overflowed its bank and it caused the flood
The people produce rice, cassava, yam, groundnuts, palm oil, melon, potatoes and other crops in large quantities, which they sell to neighbouring communities and states including Cross River State to earn a living. The crops, economic trees, houses and other valuable belongings were all destroyed.
Those who died in the disaster include Ude Catherine, 38; Ude Modester, 7; Ude Helen, 4, who has not been found till date; Ehihia Uroh from Uhu Elem, and Okpani Agha from Amaocha, among others.
Some of them were swept away by the flood while some died when the boats carrying them out of their farms capsized in the river during the rains.
Most of the deceased were harvesting their crops across the river when the flood suddenly covered the farms, sweeping human beings, crops and the houses the farmers built in the area where they sleep sometimes after work.
Blessing Okoche, whose mother, Angela Okoche and aunt died in the incident, narrated her story to Saturday Sun.
She said: “The incident happened last week Saturday. My mother and my siblings were in a boat returning from our farm across the river when the boat capsized and they all fell into the river.
“My siblings were all rescued alive but my mother and her sister, who were also in the boat, were swept away by the river. We looked for them and we couldn’t see them. On Friday, August 8, their bodies were recovered.
“They have been buried. My mother was buried in my father’s plot of land in our community. There was no burial rite for her and her sister. We left everything till December this year. My father is no more alive.
“I am devastated, I don’t know where to start. We are eight in number as children and as you can see, I am the only one that has grown up a little, others are very tender. I don’t know how they came out alive. I thank God for saving them”.
Mrs Janet Ewa, a farmer who survived the disaster, lamented the devastation of the flood which she said has brought untold hardship to the members of the community.
“The flood has dealt with us. It has killed us and destroyed our crops. The flood has killed members of our community. Two women and three children were harvesting their cassava and the flood came and swept five of them away. The deceased are from same family. The two women are sisters while the three children are children of one of them.”
She predicted famine and general hardship in the community as a result of the disaster and called on the state and federal governments to come to their aid.
“Some members of the community have died of high blood pressure as a result of this disaster. All our cassava has spoiled as a result of this flood. We don’t know what to do.
“We do our farming activities at the other side of the river, which is in Cross River State because of lack of enough land to farm. We have makeshifts where we rest and even sleep in that side of the river. Now, everything there has been destroyed.
“There are many people in our community who didn’t harvest their crops, while the crops harvested by just few members of our community have all rotten as a result of this heavy flood.
“There will be famine in this community and the entire Afikpo and neighbouring towns because people come to buy food from us, but the food has been destroyed by flood. Government should please come to our aid, we need help seriously,” she stated.
One of the leaders of the community, Hassan Urom Olughu, who broke down in tears while narrating the incident to Saturday Sun, lamented the death of members of the community in the disaster.
He said the community has never witnessed such a flood disaster, adding that some of the victims were harvesting their crops when the flood swept them away.
His words: “It pained our hearts. What happened has never happened in the history of our community. We have been having flood, but this year’s own is very devastating. The other floods could take away our crops, destroy our crops and other things but this year’s own is very devastating.
“Some were harvesting their cassava and groundnuts and dropped their children with people. Before they could finish, the flood had covered everywhere, killing some children.
“The river overflowed its bank and people started packing their things inside canoes and they were caught up by the flood and that’s how we lost them. We started evacuating everybody, including the fishermen with canoe because everybody just wanted to get away from the riverside.
“We were very busy evacuating people when the flooding occurred, and in the process, one of the canoes capsized. We rescued many people, but you can imagine having the accident. We could not rescue everybody. Some drowned, some tried to swim but as a result of fatigue, they collapsed.
“Then all of us went looking for them because most of us are good swimmers. For more than five days, our people were inside this big river looking for them. After a day, we would recovered a body, and on another day, we would recover another body. Even, we saw one child floating on the river, the body was just floating and you know in Biology, when you have not developed a teeth, you will be floating. So, we picked the child but we could not resuscitate him.
“So, we lost about seven good persons, including three big adults. The most devastating one is a woman and four of her children. They all died in the disaster and the other one from Ezi Ewa, we missed her. The ones from Uhu Elem here were harvesting their crops and the water covered a child, the crop and everything. This is why I said the flood is devastating, it was an incurable disaster.”
Another community leader, Chief Okpani Brenden, the oldest man in the community, said seven of his relatives died in the disaster.
“My children went to the river for fishing and as they were returning, their boat capsized and about seven of them died. The community is devastated over this incident and the members decided to start looking for them inside the river and went as far as going very far in the river.
“Coincidentally, they recovered the bodies of some of them and brought them for burial and they have been buried.”
On his part, Chief Alphonsus Nnachi disclosed that the heavy rains that caused the disaster in the area stated on July 20 and lasted till last week.
He explained that a baby girl who was among those swept by the flood was still missing
Nnachi lamented that the flood has caused a lot of damages to the community apart from the lives that were lost.
He said over 2,000 persons in the community were affected by the flood and urged government at all levels to come to their aid.
“The whole community is affected. Many are still missing. We have no fewer than three persons that are missing but we have recovered about five.
“We have searched thoroughly for those missing to know if we can find them and they have not been found. We have searched Cross River side of the river and that child that is also missing, a baby girl and others that are missing have not been found.
“We also lost a very tender one who is one year plus. She was sleeping on a makeshift bed in a makeshift prepared around the river when the flood swept him away. He was sleeping with the elder sister in the night and when he woke up in the night, he felt down without the notice of the elder sister. When the mother came back, she noticed that the baby was lying lifeless.
“The flood is a very big disaster, of which we are already making our reports. We are preparing the report which we are going to submit to the government. We have prepared a very serious report on the disaster and no fewer than 2,000 families were affected by the flood.
“Many farmlands,; rice, cassava, groundnut, yam and other crops were destroyed by the disaster
This rain that caused this disaster, started about 20th July, 2025 and continued till the flood occurred and it is still ravaging our community. Houses, crops and other valuable property are still submerged in the water.
“This place is where garri, yam, groundnuts, fish, potatoes and even fish are produced in large quantities and the neighbouring communities and states come here to buy them. Now, these things have been destroyed by flood.
“This is the period for harvesting and flood has washed the crops that should be harvested away. The little ones that were harvested, have all decayed and if it is just two, three days rainfall, it wouldn’t have happened like this. But this one is very devastating. It has been raining since July 20.”
Okechukwu Idam, another stakeholder in the community, revealed that many people died in the disaster with only few of them recovered from the river.
He said the incident has brought untold hardship and hunger in the area as according to him, no crop was salvaged from the flood.
“This is a community that has been feeding the whole Ebonyi State with cassava and groundnuts, but because of the flood this year, we lost all we have as crops. Our people were in the their farms harvesting these crops and the flood covered up and they were unable to come out,” he stated.
The youth leader of the community, Ogbonnia Ajuka, said the entire community was in a mourning mood because of the disaster.
He called on government at all levels to do more sensitization to reach rural dwellers, stressing that members of the community who he said have no access to the media, didn’t get the prediction that there would be flooding in the Afikpo area this year.
He said if there was adequate sensitization, notifying them of the disaster before its occurrence, they would not have suffered the devastation they are passing through as a result of the flood.
“The economy is very bad, and now the flood has taken all our means of livelihood which is our crops. We wonder how we can survive this harsh economy of our country. If there should be manna from heaven, we need that manna as it happened in the scripture because we are very stranded now. We have been crying, but crying cannot solve the problem. We are just relying on government and if there is any means they can help us, let them do that now before hunger kills us.
“Yes, one may say that there was prediction of flooding by the federal government, and people living around riverine areas were warned through the media to relocate.
“But you know this is a community and many people don’t listen to news or read newspapers. So, it is a very big problem. We are calling on government find a way of making sure that this warning gets to the grassroots.
“Nearly all the indigenes of this community are affected by this disaster because we don’t have any other occupation than farming and fishing and since this incident occurred, it is assumed that everybody in the community was affected.”
Meanwhile, the state government has expressed surprise that people were still living around flood-prone areas and engaging in human activities despite the sensitisation that have been going round the state which it said started before the peak of this year’s rainy season.
Commissioner for Human Capital Development in the state, Mrs Ann Aligwe, who commiserated with the families that lost their loved ones in the disaster, urged people living around river areas and water pathways to immediately vacate the areas.
“Immediately the disaster occurred, I alerted our dear governor, who ordered an emergency rescue team immediately and he also approved some relief materials to enable us relocate the affected victims to a safer IDP camp. Everything is in place to ensure that the victims are comfortable in the IDP camp.
“Before the month of March and April when we received information from Nimet that Ebonyi State would be among the 28 states that will be affected by flooding this year, we had series of preparedness trainings, engagement, sensitization across the radio stations and televisions, using the town criers to notify people living across the river ways or flood pathways so that they will relocate to a safe ground.
“We also did some road works which many Ebonyi people participated in, to sensitise people across the 13 local government areas of the state. People who listened to our advice, obeyed the instructions and directive from the state government and federal government through NEMA and SEMA.
“We are surprised that there are people who are still living within river boundaries and waterways. Nobody knows what nature is full of and it is a very sad event for us,” Aligwe said. .
Governor Francis Nwifuru has also commiserated with victims of the flood disaster.
“I sincerely condole with the families who lost loved ones, as well as to all who suffered losses during this unfortunate incident.
“As a government, we stand with you in this moment of grief, and I assure you that my administration will provide the necessary support to help you recover and rebuild.”
The governor promised to work closely with the affected communities, local authorities, and relevant agencies to ensure that relief materials, rehabilitation efforts, and preventive measures are promptly and effectively delivered
He urged residents of the state to factor in the reality of climate change to their daily activities, especially during future rainy seasons.
“This tragedy is a sober reminder of the urgent need to integrate climate change considerations into our flood risk management strategies,” the governor advised.
He listed other communities in the state affected by flooding this year as Ndiagu Amagu, Item Amagu, Ochieyimu Amagu, Akahufu Amagu, Ebushike Amagu, Obegu Item, Odeligbo Amagu, Enyimagu, Ndiagu Echara, and Ekpaomaka, all in Ikwo Local Government Area of the state.
