Niger State government has pleaded with the Federal Government for immediate assistance to tackle the flood ravaging the state, especially in the resettlement of communities already affected by the perennial flood.


The state Acting Governor, Ahmed Ketso made this appeal yesterday in an interactive session with journalists after inaugurating Correspondents Chapel of NUJ office in Minna.

He explained that as the rains set in this year, “several communities within the planes of rivers Niger and Kaduna are now being threatened by the impending flood.” Communities mostly affected, according to the Acting Governor, include Shiroro, Mokwa, Lavun, Borgu, Wushishi, Lapai abd Agaie Local Government areas, with their houses and farm produce submerged completely. He said already, the state government has sent a letter of appeal to the Federal Government seeking for its prompt intervention to save the lives of millions of people affected by flood every year in the state.

Alhaji Ketso noted that the Federal Government’s intervention on the worst hit communities in Muregi area of the state during the Obasanjo regime, had since stopped. He said: “At our own level, we have started sensitising the people living within the prone areas and we are hoping that the federal government will soon assist us in the resettlement efforts towards finding a permanent solution to the problem of flood disaster in the state.

“Regrettably, several lives have been lost to the annual flooding in the affected areas, while farm produce worth millions of naira have also been destroyed because most of them are predominantly farmers. “Even up till now, many of these farmers are jobless because they do not have anywhere to go, to continue with their businesses.”


http://www.vondanews.com/niger-begs-fg-for-intervention-in-flood-disasters-resettlement

Really