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Friday, September 28, 2012

Floods: Death toll now 104

The National Emergency Management Agency has said that 104 persons have lost their lives in the floods that have ravaged the North Central zone of the country in the last two months.

NEMA Zonal Coordinator, Mr. Mohammed Abdulsalam, who revealed this on Thursday said more than 50,000 people had been displaced by the floods.
The  North Central zone is made up of Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa Niger, Plateau and Kwara states. Apart from the North Central zone, massive flooding has also affected states in the North Eastern states of Bauchi and Adamawa.
Abdulsalam said the majority of those affected were women and children who were going through hardships that required urgent intervention.
He said that the Federal Government, through NEMA, had spent over N300m to purchase relief materials and drugs, among others, to provide succour to the victims.
The coordinator said that the excessive flooding being experienced in about 26 states of the federation was due to the release of water from dams, opening of spill ways to release excess waters, blockage of drainage system and heavy rainfall.
Also on Thursday, the National Emergency Management Agency warned that over a million Nigerians could be killed if a dam in Cameroun burst.
The agency made this known at the presentation of a manual to prevent such an occurrence. The manual, which was endorsed on Thursday at a ceremony in Abuja by stakeholders, aims to put measures in place to mitigate flood waters from the lake from affecting the people of Benue State.

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