The Director General on Media and Publicity to the Kogi State Governor, Kingsley Fanwo has called on Federal Authorities to come to the aid of Kogi State as, according to him, “the state is in dire need of humanitarian interventions”.
Fanwo said thousands of houses are submerged by floods in some flood plains in Lokoja and Ibaji, describing the situation as “desperately pathetic”.
“The Kogi State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has been stretched to the limit. The State Government is providing immediate interventions within its financial capacity, but what government has been able to do is grossly inadequate.
“Apart from Nataco, Sarkin Numa, Ganaja and other areas in Lokoja where floods have taken over communities; Ibaji communities are completely passing through the fury floods that have sacked people from their homes and farmlands. Some people are climbing trees to survive.
“There is an urgent need to relocate the affected people and settle them in camps. We call on the National Emergency Management Agency to quickly come to our aid.
“The State already has a situation room under the leadership of the Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources to collate the realities on ground. What we are getting at the moment is of frightening enormity that requires urgent attention”.
The Director General said government has all the information that will be required by NEMA, saying the situation is getting worse by the day.
“As the center of the nation, a locked-in Kogi will affect the entire nation. Roads have been taken over, people now sleep on the streets and nursing mothers are gory sights to behold. We call on Federal Agencies and the international community to quickly come to our aid”.
He urged people still living in flooded homes to vacate the places, saying it is unsafe to continue to sleep in flooded apartments.
