Niger Assembly warned against impending flood
By Saka Bolaji
Niger State House of Assembly has warned against impending flooding in the state.
This was sequel to the recent warning by the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMET) of heavy downpours this rainy season.
The House of Assembly has passed a resolution directing the State governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago to take preventive measures against possible flooding of communities in parts of the state.
The lawmakers specifically asked the state government to as a matter of urgency, embark on aggressive sensitisation of the people across all the flood-prone local government areas of the state in order to educate them on the need for them to relocate from their ancestral homes in the low ground to higher grounds.
The House gave the directive at its plenary recently presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Afiniki Dauda after a motion of urgent public importance brought before the House by the member representing Gbako constituency, Hon. Yahaya Abubakar Ahmadu.
Mover of the motion has called on the government to immediately take proactive measures as well as sensitize the people living around riverside/ coastal communities over the impending flooding as predicted by the Nigerian Metrological Agency.
According to Hon. Yahaya Abubakar while moving the motion, called on the Executive arm to take the issue of flooding very seriously, pointing out that already no fewer than nine communities and villages in his constituency have been ravaged by the floods while many more are being threatened from severe flooding.
He added that if the prediction by the NiMET is anything to go by, no fewer than 17 local government areas of the state will be affected by severe flooding this year.
He disclosed that though no lives have been lost yet, farmland, farm produce and other properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed since the rain started.
According to him ,”there is the need for immediate government intervention in communities already affected in the area of provision of healthcare, food and temporary shelters to reduce their sufferings.
“This issue of flooding has been a yearly occurrence and therefore the warning by NiMET must be taken seriously, the executive arm of the government must take proactive measures towards forestalling a re-occurrence and avoid unnecessary lost of lives and properties.”
The House while passing the motion, expressed reservations that every successive administration in the state has continued to pay lip service to the issue of flood which has continued to wreak havoc across communities in the state.
The Deputy Speaker, who presided over the plenary, directed the Clerk of the House, Alhaji Abdullahi Kagara to communicate the resolution of the House to the executive arm of the government for immediate action in other to prevent unnecessary loss of lives and properties as a result of the impending flood.
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It could however be recalled that Niger state has a disturbing history of devastating floods disasters which annually sweeps through villages and communities across the state with attendant consequences on both human and material losses.
According to statistics by the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NISEMA), between 2007 and 2019, an estimated 1,520 lives were lost to flood disasters, and Windstorms while over 200,000 farmlands crops, and Livestock were washed away, while properties estimated at several millions of naira were also destroyed in the aftermath.
