By Sam kayode
Sixteen persons have lost their lives in different locations in Jigawa State while over 3,936 households have been submerged in a damming flood across 10 council areas of the state.
This was announced in Dutse on Wednesday by the Executive Secretary (ES) of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Alhaji Haruna Mairiga, while addressing reporters in his office over the recent devastating floods across the state.
He further explained that 3,834 individuals had lost their houses and belongings that are yet to be quantified in terms of monetary value to the rainy season’s flood.
The ES said that what was most worrisome in the problem was that about 2,734 hectares of farm lands were also lost to floods across the affected communities in the state.
“Some of these communities were about to start harvesting their rice, when this ugly incident happened so you could see their shock because it was not expected.
“The State Governor is doing its best to assist the residents in the affected communities across the 10 Local Governments.
“To stop the flood from its devastating havoc across our communities, the state government plans to construct more dams in all the flood prone areas in the state.
“A committee has already been set up along with the Appeal Fund raising committee. And the Governor asked us to take the available relief materials to all the affected places and victims,” he stressed.
Mairiga also disclosed that presently the state government has more than enough relief materials for the affected victims in its stores and warehouses.
He added that the only challenge on ground now is that some of these stores were looted by protesters during the hunger strike while the ones in Hedeja and Gumel council areas were vandalised.
Mairiga noted that the 16 lives lost were from different areas and circumstances, while there are about 10 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps presently created in the state as a result of the devastating flood.
The ES revealed that some of the victims in the IDP camps were as a result of the vicious floods while others were from buildings that collapsed and crushed them to death.
