September 12, (THEWILL) – Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has disclosed that at least one million people were affected by the flood which ravaged Maiduguri city and its environs on Tuesday.
Zulum stated this while speaking on the incident in Maiduguri on Tuesday, shortly after the distribution of food items at the new Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps set up to accommodate the affected people.
“We have separated them into different camps and are already providing support. We will come up with long-term and short-term measures as soon as we take the data of the people affected.
“The water this year exceeded the capacity of the dam. We had a very heavy rainfall and it may be due to climate change. I think the population of the affected people will reach one million because more than half of the city has been flooded.
“What we need to do now is to reconstruct the dam. Also, most of the waterways are blocked because people built houses on the waterways thereby reducing the weight of the canals. This is one of the major reasons for this problem. We have not seen this kind of incident in about 50 years. There was also the release of water from Cameroon and other countries and this compounded the problem,” Zulum disclosed.
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, who visited Borno State to sympathise over the flood disaster, also assessed the security situation at the Correctional Service facility where there was an alleged jailbreak and many prisoners said to have escaped.
Fielding questions from newsmen in Maiduguri on Wednesday, the Minister described the incident as a “sad moment”.
“It is a sad moment. We empathise with the people of Borno and of course, the government is very much concerned. You can be rest assured that the government will not do a stock take as we have today but we will make sure that we do our best to set things right.
“One of our correctional centres was affected. Actions are currently ongoing. There are certain things that I won’t be able to disclose at the moment because of security reasons but you can be assured we are on top of the situation 100 percent,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo, who also said the Immigration passport office was affected, assured the people of Borno that everything was under control, adding that President Bola Tinubu won’t disappoint them.
“All these issues are minor compared to the general impact of the flood on the people of Borno. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not let them down and this administration cares. The Vice President was here yesterday and today I am here, so that tells you how important we view this particular incident. You can be rest assured that we will be up and doing and make sure we bring succour to the people of Borno State,” he added
Meanwhile, the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has begun an on-the-spot assessment of the level of destruction caused by the flood.
Mohammed Alkali, the Managing Director/CEO of the Commission, while sympathising with the victims, pledged to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to cushion the effect of the flood disaster.
”This is an unfortunate incident and I will advise those living in flood-prone areas to exercise extreme caution and avoid those areas for their safety,” he says.
Alkali said the commission would, in the interim, liaise with the State Government and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to support the victims.
According to the NEDC MD, the commission will provide relief materials to the victims, pending the completion of an ongoing investigation into the causes of the flood incident.
I am Ladi Dapson, a general writer with thewill. I cover Borno and Yobe states respectively.
I based Maiduguri, Borno State Capital.
I can be reached via [email protected].
Very high and kind regards!
