Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
Floods ravaging parts of Jigawa State have claimed five more victims, all of whom died as a result of the disaster in Miga Local Government Area, locals say.
Council Chairman Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar Agufa told reporters that residents of the area have lost hundreds of farmlands and homes to the flood.
Alhaji Muhammed said residents have defied sleep in trying to salvage the remaining part of the town that is also under threat of flooding.
The chairman said all abled bodied men in the town have been moblised to be on guard every night to protect the town from the rampaging waters through embarkments provided by the State Emergency Management Authority (SEMA) and other charitable individuals.
He stated that the waters are as a result of blockages in the Hadejia river by typha grass after days of continued rainfall that refused to drain the over logged land.
Daily Sun investigations revealed that other structures such as the local government secretariat building, the police divisional office, a 20-room Youth Corpers lodge, and the council hospital were all submerged in the flood.
Local Government officials, including the council chairman, are currently operating from the official residence of the chairman, while the police have resorted to using nearby trees as temporary shelter until the floods subside.
Some residents who spoke to our reporter disclosed that they continued to suffer under the flood even though they were provided with garri, groundnut cake and sugar with which to sustain them for the time being.
SEMA Executive Secretary Alhaji Yusuf Sani Babura told our reporter that the State is already collating comprehensive data on all affected victims across the state.
In the meantime, he said, the State has offered Miga council 70 bags of garri, 50 bags of groundnut cake, 30 bags of sugar and 2 locally made canoes as temporary relief.