Flood: NEMA declares national disaster in four states

The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Maihaja, has declared flooding a national disaster in four states of Kogi, Niger, Delta and Anambra, placing eight others on the watch list.

The agency made the declaration on Monday, days after the President ordered it to declare the situation a national disaster.

Following the order, Maihaja had earlier inaugurated five Emergency Operation Centres (EOC) to facilitate prompt search and rescue operations as well as humanitarian support in the 12 states worst affected by flooding.

The Emergency Response Centres would be responsible for planning, organising, directing and supervising deployment of resources with the affected state governments and local authorities and communities.

The primary objective was to localize the responses and expedite intervention to save lives and facilitate quick recovery.

At the command centre in Abuja, the NEMA DG and other chief executives would be responsible for the formulation of policy and operational guidelines for the conduct of emergency operations in all the worst affected states.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) had earlier warned that the steady rise in water levels and weather forecast in the coming weeks have put Nigeria at risk of witnessing a recurrence of the catastrophic flooding similar to what it witnessed in 2012.