Flood displaces 600,000 in Kogi

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello

Umar Muhammed with agency report

NO fewer than 600,000 persons in Kogi State have been displaced in the nine local government areas of the state affected during 2012 and 2016 flood disaster in the state.

The state Commissioner for Environment, Mrs. Rosemary Osikoya, said this in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on sidelines of the closing ceremony of the 10th National Council on Environment in Lafia.

Speaking on the state government’s efforts in relation to erosion, she said, “Kogi State has always suffered terribly in terms of flooding. In 2012, for instance, over 600,000 people were displayed and every year, nine local government areas of the state has always been affected.”

According to her, since 2012, there has been no change in the lives of the people and the houses that were flooded are still there.

She said Governor Yahaya Bello had directed a joint team from the Ministry of Works, Land, Houses and Urban Development and the Ministry of Environment to identify all the houses on flood-prone areas and again to see what could be done.

While further urging residents in the state to desist from building along riverbanks, Osikoya said it was important for citizens to protect the environment.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 120 houses, farms and other valuables worth millions of naira have been destroyed by a flood in Jahun Local Government Area of Jigawa, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

A House of Representatives member, Sai’du Yusuf, stated this while speaking with journalists during a visit to the victims.

Yusuf was accompanied by Chief Whip of the House, Alasan Doguwa, who was representing the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, as well as a representative of the National Emergency Management Agency.

The chief whip donated N500,000 to the victims, while Yusuf did not comment on his donation, saying, “It is between me and God.”

NAN gathered that the lawmaker had donated an undisclosed amount of cash, 50 sacks of maize, 50 bundles of wrappers and 60 bundles of brocade, popularly known as “Shadda,” to the victims.

He also promised to move a motion of “urgent national importance” when he returned to the House in order to find a lasting solution to the flood that he said ravaged the council annually.