From Rose Ejembi and Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The Benue State Government has stated that 23 people have died with 116,084 others displaced by recent ravaging floods in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr Emmanuel Shior, made the disclosure while briefing newsmen in his office in Makurdi, yesterday.
Shior also disclosed that 11 out of the 23 local government areas in the state have been affected by the flood, including Guma, Vandeikya, Otukpo, Katsina-Ala, Makurdi, Apa, Agatu, Tarka, Gboko, Gwer West and Logo.He said 74 people have also been injured with 12, 856 households displaced, while 4,411 houses were either lost or submerged in the flood.
While he noted that the government was still profiling the affected people, the SEMA boss said the state government would be providing food stuffs, including thousands of bags of rice and cartons of noodles to the affected people.He said: “In Agatu, most people have left their homes and are taking refuge on the highways,” a development he described as dangerous, saying the government has evacuated the affected people to safer havens in Ogbagaji, while others were being profiled.
While noting that the entire water sources in Makurdi and its environs have been polluted, he said the federal government, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has also sent a truck with a machine for water purification to provide the affected people with drinking water, so as to prevent an outbreak of diseases.
“I have been in talks with the coordinator of NEMA in the North Central and have been assured that the federal government is mobilising the zonal office with non food items; mattresses, mats, blankets and mosquito nets have started arriving. He expressed hope that as the materials arrive, the state would reach out to all the affected people in the state.
The Director General, NEMA, Mustapha Habib, represented by the Principal Officer, Research and Rescue, John Digha, commiserated with the people and government of Benue State over the flood.
He explained that the water treatment truck provided by the agency was the first phase of interventions.
He said the agency was in the process of procuring and sending relief materials, including food and non food items, to states that were affected by the flood. He said the aim of the truck was to purify water, so that the people could have good drinking water and prevent water borne diseases.”The truck has the capacity of producing 2,000 litres of pure drinking water from river water in one hour. It is in our nature to work until we ensure that we have done our best for the people.”