Over 10,000 families in Kogi state have suffered another flood that affected many houses in the state.
The governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who disclosed this yesterday when he visited some affected areas in Lokoja and Ajaokuta local government areas, also pay visit to IDP camps across the state.
Bello, who pointed out that anytime there was heavy down pour, the River Niger and Benue always overflow its bounds and the effect was more on the people of the state, added that many communities in Ibaji, Ajaokuta, IgalaMela/ Odolu, Bassa, Koton-Karfi and Lokoja were badly affected.
He called on the federal government and SEMA to come to the aid of the state, which is in dire need of humanitarian interventions.
The governor also disclosed that thousands of houses were submerged by floods in some plains in Lokoja and Ibaji, describing the situation as “desperately pathetic”.
“Kogi state Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has been stretched to the limit. The state government is providing immediate interventions within its financial capacity, but what government has been able to do is grossly inadequate because of paucity of funds.
“Apart from Nataco, Sarkin Numa, Ganaja and other areas in Lokoja where floods have taken over communities; Ibaji communities are completely passing through the fury floods that have sacked people from their homes and farmlands.
“There is an urgent need to relocate the affected people and settle them in camps. We call on the National Emergency Management Agency to quickly come to our aid.
“The state already has a situation room under the leadership of the Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources to collate the realities on ground. What we are getting at the moment is of frightening enormity that requires urgent attention.
“Government has all the information that will be required by NEMA, the situation is getting worse by the day as the center of the nation, a locked-in Kogi will affect the entire nation”.
He called on federal agencies and the international community to quickly come to the aid of the state.
