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• Directs State Government to Sensitize the People against Flood Disaster
From John Adams, Minna
Following warning by the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMET) of heavy rainfall this year, the Niger state House of Assembly, has directed the state governor, Rt. Hon. Umar Mohammed Bago to immediately take preventive measures against possible flooding of communities in the state.
The lawmakers specifically asked the state government to as a matter of urgent; embark on aggressive sensitization of the people across all the flood pruned local government areas of the state in other to educate them on the need for them to relocate from low ground to high ground.
The House gave the directive at its plenary on Wednesday presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Afiniki Dauda (Gurara) after a motion of urgent public importance brought before the House by the member representing Gbako Constituency, Hon. Yahaya Abubakar Ahmadu, calling on the government to immediately take proactive measures as well as sensitize the people living around riverside communities on the impending flooding as predicted by the Nigerian Metrological Agency.
According to Hon. Yahaya Abubakar while moving the motion, calling on the Executive to take the issue of flooding very serious, pointed out that already no fewer than nine communities and villages in his constituency have been ravaged by the flood while many more faces threat from severe flooding, adding that if the prediction by the NiMET is anything to go by, no fewer than 17 local government areas of the state will be affected by severe flooding this year.
He disclosed that though no live has been lost yet, farm land, farm produce and other properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed since the rain started, stressing that “there is the need for immediate government intervention in communities already affected in the area of provision of healthcare, food and temporary shelters to reduce their sufferings.
“This issue of flooding has been a yearly occurrence and therefore the warning by NiMET must be taken serious, the executive arm of the government must take a proactive measures towards forestalling a re-occurrence and avoid unnecessary lost of lives and properties”.
The House while passing the motion, expressed regret that every successful administration in the state have continue to pay lip-service to the issue of flood which has continue to wreck havoc across communities in the state.
The Deputy Speaker, who presided the plenary, directed the clerk of the House, Alhaji Abdullahi Kagara to communicate the resolution of the House to the executive arm of the government for immediate action in other to prevent unnecessary loss of lives and properties as a result of the impending flood.
It could be recalled that Niger state has a disturbing history of devastating flood disaster which annually sweeps through villages and communities across the state with attendant consequences on both human and material loses.
According to statistics by the Niger State Emergency Managemnet Agency (NISEMA), between 2007 and 2019, and estimated 1,520 lives were lost to flood disaster, over 200,000 farm land and crops washed away, while properties worth millions of naira were lost.
