October 9, 2012  by Success Nwogu, Ilorin 10 Comments

The Kogi State Emergency Management Agency said the number of displaced persons in the state had risen to 623,690.

According to a statement in Lokoja on Monday by the Director, Ministry of Information, Mr. James Adedoyin, SEMA, in its latest report, said property estimated at over N2bn were lost to the flood while about 344 communities were completely submerged by the flood.

The report also said an estimated 152, 575 hectares of farmlands were destroyed by the flood.

It added that 50,493 internally displaced persons, who had no    alternative accommodation, had been housed in 87 camps in the nine affected local government areas.

It said the management of the camps through the combined efforts of the Federal Government agencies and Kogi State as well as voluntary humanitarian organisations, had ensured safe and healthy living for the flood victims in the camps.

The report stated that there had been no major outbreak of epidemics, adding that only eight lives had been lost to  the flood in the State.

Meanwhile, the state government said the promise by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, that the Federal Government would aggressively pursue dry season farming to mitigate the losses incurred from the flood disaster in the country was a relief.

It urged the Federal Government to back the announcement with action in order to avert the imminent crisis in the agricultural sector.

In a related development, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media, Alhaji Zakari Mohammed, has said the current flooding of some parts of the country is a wake up call  to both the government  and the people to forestall a recurrence.

Speaking  on Monday while donating items to victims of the flood at Gbajiba, Kaiama Local Government of Kwara State, Mohammed noted the need to take environmental safety seriously.

He stated that there was the need to put appropriate mechanisms in place to safe guard investments and called for the construction of more dams to reduce or prevent flooding.

Some of the items donated included mattresses, blankets, tubers of yams, assorted drinks and bags of rice.

He added that the House of Representatives was collating reports of the flood disasters across the country.

Zakari said there were moves to make the National Emergency Management Agency a commission so that it could effectively deal with disaster management issues.

He said, “NEMA cannot go above its current capabilities as an agency of government.  That is why there are already moves to make it a commission so that it can get more empowerment and get more budgetary provisions to rise more effectively to such challenges in the future.”

“The occurrence this year spans almost 13 states and of course the provision might not be sufficient to handle such alarming situation.

That is why I said we need to get NEMA more empowered to rise up to such challenges in the future.

“At the level of legislative arm, I know that the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Bukola Saraki, is working and pushing for a bill tthat would make NEMA  a commission.  The bill would provide a framework for an establishment that would have money at its disposal to readily tackle such challenges.”

The Mogaji Rafi of Gbajibo, Alhaji Ibrahim Usman commended Mohammed for his donation.

-Punch

Posted by admin on Oct 9 2012. Filed under Headlines, Kogi, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry