The Rivers State Government is angry with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), it emerged yesterday. Reason: inadequate supply of relief materials for victims of flooding in the state.
The Chairman of the Rivers State Flood Relief Committee and Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru, at a news conference at the Government House, Port Harcourt, said eight flood victims died in Ahoada East Local Government Area.
Ikuru said he was not sure of the casualty figure in the three other flood-affected Local Government Areas, such as Abua/Odual, Ahoada West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni. Some sources put the casualty figure at no fewer than 20.
The deputy governor said the Rotimi Amaechi administration had spent about N300 million to provide relief materials for the victims. He said the N300 million promised by the Federal Government is still being expected.
The relief committee chairman said the Rivers government spent over N24 million to buy wrappers for the victims.
Ikuru said: “After many weeks of battling with floods in Rivers State, NEMA, a Federal Government’s agency responsible for emergency situations, only donated 500 mattresses and 200 bags of assorted food items. I insisted that a list of relief materials NEMA brought must be provided, for the figure not to change later.
“The relief materials donated by NEMA to flood victims in Rivers State are grossly inadequate and ridiculous, given the level of devastation in the state.
“Officials of NEMA are now going with cameras to camps we opened and running. This is absurd. We are mostly concerned with providing relief materials for our people in Rivers State.
“We have been told that NEMA claimed to have set up camps in Rivers State. While we do not intend to take issues with the agency, we make bold to say that all the existing camps in the state are the ones set up by the Rivers government, through the committee. To the best of our knowledge, nobody or organisation has set up any camp anywhere in the state.
“If anybody is doing anything anywhere in Rivers State, we welcome such contributions, because as a government, the welfare of our people is a collective responsibility. Hence, if anybody is doing anything, we will like to know who is doing what in our state, so as to be on the same page.
“From our assessment and the reports we are getting, there is more to be done. We still need more relief materials, as the water is yet to dry up and there are more predictions that the experience of the last few weeks are not yet over, as water levels are expected to rise in the impacted areas.”
NEMA’s Southsouth Coordinator, Mr. Emenike Umesi, denied the allegations leveled against the agency. He told The Nation on phone: “NEMA has been working closely with the Rivers State government. The allegations levelled against NEMA are shocking.
“NEMA was the first to do assessment of flooded areas in Rivers State and we took officials of the state government to the affected areas. Rivers government runs the opened camps, while NEMA provides technical assistance. The relief materials were provided based on the assessment made by NEMA officials.”
Ikuru said 183 communities were affected by the flooding, adding that the figure of Internally Displaced Persons had risen to 830, with some staying with their relatives in safer areas.
He noted that the ravaging floods either submerged, destroyed or completely washed away property worth billions of naira.
He said the committee has opened 26 resettlement camps to accommodate the displaced persons.
Ikuru said: “Just on Monday, the committee members embarked on an on-the-spot-tour of the six camps in Ahoada East LGA: Ahoada, Edeoha, Odiabidi, Ula-Upata, Ogbo and Okporowo-Ekpeye to access the situation and as a clear indication of the committee’s commitment to deliver on its mandate.
“We shall do the same for the other camps in the other LGAs, within the period of the Sallah break. So, to the members of the committee, there is no holiday, until our people regain what they have lost to floods.
“The visit to Ahoada East camps also afforded us the opportunity to come to terms with some challenges being experienced in the different camps, which range from indiscipline among inmates of the camps, uncooperative attitude of some of the victims and of more serious concern is the overwhelming number of people going into the camps.
“It is absurd for chiefs and leaders of some communities to bring their chieftaincy and communal problems to the camps and engage in the willful, illegal, favouritism and criminal diversion of relief materials meant for the floods’ victims.
“Such acts of criminality will not be condoned henceforth and defaulters will be made to face the full wrath of the law.”
The deputy governor also urged the displaced persons to cooperate with the relevant agencies managing the camps.
Like Rivers State, the Kwara State Government has said it is yet to receive the N300 million flood disaster fund from the Federal Government.
The Special Adviser to Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed on Emergency and Relief Services, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, spoke in Kaima Local Government Area of Kwara while presenting relief materials to flood victims in the area.
He condemned insinuations in some quarters that N25 million released by AbdulFatah Ahmed for the purchase of relief materials for the over 7, 000 victims of the flood was part of the N300 million being expected from the Federal Government.
Abdullahi assured the victims that they would still receive assistance not only from the Federal Government but from wealthy Nigerians and spirited organisations.
He advised the victims to keep-off from the river banks to forestall future occurrence.
The governor’s aide later presented 100 bags of rice, 100 bags of cement, 100 mattresses, plastic materials and other valuables to the local government chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Sidiq.
Receiving the items, Sidiq expressed appreciation to the governor for the kind gesture.
He assured that the relief materials would be distributed to genuine flood victims in the local government.
In Zamfara, crops worth N1 billion have been lost to floods in seven Local Government Areas.
The Director of Information, Zamfara Emergency Management Agency (ZEMA), Alhaji Bello Na-Allah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau that the destruction occurred between August and October in Gummi, Shinkafi, Maradun, Gusau, Maru, Kauran Namoda and Anka local government areas.
He said that crops in nine farming communities were completely submerged or destroyed by the floods and listed the crops as maize, millet, sorghum, sugarcane, rice, cotton and soya-beans.
“The disaster had devastating effects on the people of the affected communities, who were left without food and shelter,’’ Na-Allah said.
He said, for instance, in Gutsura community in Gummi Local Government Area, farmers lost up to N300 million worth of crops, in addition to losing their houses.
He said the flooding was caused by the collapse of some earth dams in the area, which caused rivers to over flow their banks.
The director said the state government and National Emergency Management Agency responded quickly to the emergency in the state by providing relief for affected communities.
The director said that the state government had taken proactive steps to manage future floods by mounting awareness campaigns through the radio and television.
He said the measure was to educate flood-prone communities to relocate from “danger zones“ if the need arose.
The director further said that ZEMA in collaboration with traditional rulers had consistently campaigned against people building on water ways.
“Gutsura, Jangeru and Birnin Yero communities in Gummi and Shinkafi local governments are among communities provided alternative places for relocation as part of the state government’s efforts to stem occurrences of future flood disasters,“ he said.
And no thanks to the floods, prices of food items have risen sharply in Awka. A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited some markets in the state capital on Tuesday, reports that prices of staple foods such as beans and gari had increased by more than 77 per cent.
The survey showed that a measure of beans which sold for N900 before the flood had risen to N1600 while the same quantity of garri now sells for N500 instead of between N250 and N280.
According to Mr Charlse Odum, who sells food stuffs at the Eke-Awka Market, the negative consequence of the flood in the state had started manifesting in the hike in prices of food items.
“The prices of food stuffs have gone up generally, beans and garri are the most affected. Before now, we sold a cup of beans for between N40 and N45 depending on the type but now the cheapest you can get a cup is N80 for the white variety.”
